Harry From Another World
by sprinter1988
Summary: When things go wrong in one world, wizards seek help from another. Unfortunately what you want and what you get can sometimes be entirely different things. A tale featuring Harry, Hermione, Luna, Susan, Neville and a whole host of others. Loosely inspired by "The Meaning of Fear" by Rorschach's Blot. Rating for highly probable violence, and likely bad language.
1. Prologue I: Defenders of Another World

**Okay, I know that I said I wouldn't start up another story until my other ones were further along, but this idea has been bugging me again, taking my attention away from my other projects no matter how hard I try and focus on them, so I figured that I'd write a bit of it. And as a bit of it has been written, I might as well upload it for you to read.**

**For those of you wanting to know, this story, like so many others out there, is inspired and loosely based upon one of the many short stories found in the collection "Odd Ideas" by Rorschach's Blot. Actually, it was a three part story, the first part being "The Meaning of Fear" the second being "I Am The Terror" and the third being "In Terrorem." Most of the inspiration comes from the first one, though the story is quite a bit different from it now.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Harry From Another World**

_Prologue I: Defenders of Another World_

In the highest room of the tallest tower he stood looking out at the world beyond the glassless window.

Dark grey clouds blocked out the sun, threatening to rain. What little light that was able to make it to the ground illuminated a ruined landscape. One ravaged by dozens of battles waged over many years of war.

The surrounding grounds, once covered in luscious green lawns were now dry and barren. Only a few hardy weeds grew there now. The vast forest that once had stood mighty, proud and tall to the north and west was now nothing more than a burned ruin of its former self. The creatures which had once called it home were long gone, either killed or fled.

The lake was still there, but it too was devoid of life. When the Merpeople joined the fight to protect their home, their enemies rewarded them by causing the lake to bubble and boil, burning the Merpeople and the other inhabitants of the water alive.

The war that had caused all that devastation had ended three years ago now, but new foes had quickly made themselves known, desiring to conquer this land whilst its defendants were few.

Few they may have been, but they were battle hardened in a way that few Aurors ever lived long enough to become. The Defenders had discovered and developed ways and means of protecting their homeland that the invaders could barely even imagine.

It was the Goblins of Gringotts who had first discovered exactly how big of a mistake it was to challenge the vanquishers of Lord Voldemort in battle.

Thinking that they might get themselves a few boons out of the wizards, the Goblin leaders ordered their greatest warriors to lead their armies into battle. They presumed that a little bit of death and destruction dealt by the Goblin nation would be enough to convince the wizards to hold talks in the name of peace. And it would have been during those talks that the Goblins would have gotten as many concessions out of the wizards as possible.

But the Defenders had good memories, and they recalled with ease just how the actions of the Goblins at the height of the Second War against Lord Voldemort had nearly granted victory to the Dark Lord.

And the Defenders saw the actions of Goblins for what they were, and refused to play their game. And the Goblin armies quickly found themselves on the receiving end of a counter attack. Unlike so many wizards and witches before them, the Defenders did not hide away from the Goblins as they marched en masse, wielding spears and blade. No, the Defenders fought back against them, fighting without reserve, but with anger and deadly skill.

The Goblins were very much like the Death Eaters in one respect. They only ever went on the offensive when they were sure that they greatly outnumbered their foes. They made up for their lack of skill with sheer numbers, and it was through that method alone that they had hoped to win.

But the difference in numbers had not mattered to the Defenders. Their skill and ruthlessness alone had more than made up the difference. And like a Death Eater the heart of a Goblin is cowardly in nature. And seeing the power they now faced, most turned and fled back behind the marble walls of Gringotts.

And the Defenders had followed them there, where, in a siege out of the great annals of history, the great doors of the bank were thrown down, and what remained of the Goblins were driven down into the deepest pits and chasms found beneath the great marble building.

The precious metals and jewels found in the many vaults the Defenders took to safely store within their own fortress, aiming to use it in order to rebuild and recover. And the slaves of the Goblins they set free as well - Humans chained together and made to work night and day, digging and labouring in the pits, Dragons and Griffins taken when young after their parents were brutally slaughtered, and made into slaves to guard the largest vaults, and Trolls, tortured and broken, used as guards for other vaults.

It was about this time that the International Confederation of Wizards had decided to get into things, determined to take over running the country whether those living there wanted it or not.

Thankfully the Muggle Prime Minister had agreed to talk to his counterparts in other countries to get them to lean on their magical counterparts and get them to back off. Most countries heeded this and successfully got their magicals to back off. The American and Canadian wizards abstained from getting involved in the situation, and the few Central and South American countries that had been planning on getting involved quickly followed suit. The Australians had backed off shortly thereafter, and the few Asian and African countries that had looked into it declined to get involved as well.

So in the end it had become a mostly European thing. The Germans were outright convinced that they were doing the right thing, no matter how much pressure was put on them by the Muggle government. And the French had a new leader, one who had gained office under mysterious circumstances, and who point blank refused to even talk to his non-magical counterpart.

The Eastern Europeans had their own troubles and declined to get involved. The Spanish and the Portuguese withdrew from the fighting after their first attack, having been shocked into retreat by the force that they were met with. And many other countries backed out there and then.

All but a select few had gotten the message to leave Wizarding Britain alone. The Wizards of Britain had the resources needed to rebuild, and the support of the Muggle Government as well. But Aurors from France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had now spent two and a half years making repeated assaults, and this was despite ridicule from their Muggle counterparts and the majority of the ICW.

The latest intelligence, however, suggested that Luxembourg and the Netherlands were both finally withdrawing. A wise choice really, considering how not one of their Aurors survived their last attempt two months ago.

With a little luck the last three would get the message soon.

Behind him a door opened.

A woman with short red hair entered. She wore clothes that were mostly a dark red in colour, tough most was hidden by golden armour.

"Sir," she said, addressing him "the Scouts have returned. A host of the enemy has been seen to the south. They are marching towards us."

"How strong are their numbers?" he asked in return.

"They may be ten times our number, maybe more. They will be here before the sun goes down."

He nodded and replied "Let them come. Perhaps today they shall learn their lesson."

The woman nodded and went to leave, but his voice stopped her.

"Susan? Make sure that the Prime Minister gets wind of this. I'm sure he will be delighted to inform his counterparts on the continent of this."

"Of course, Harry," Susan Bones replied before turning to leave.

Harry Potter turned to look out through the window again. As he had done many times in the past, he wondered if he ought to just lead his forces across the channel and deal with his opponents on their turf. Perhaps razing each of their Ministries to the ground would get the message across…

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About an hour later Susan returned. Harry had moved away from the window and was now sitting on an old armchair, thumbing through the pages of a large and ancient leather-bound tome.

"The defences are manned, Harry," she said "And the pack has moved out. Our enemy will be here shortly."

"Thank you, Susan," he replied, setting the tome aside.

He stood and walked over to a table that stood nearby. On that table there sat a scabbard containing a sword. He took this and attached it to his belt.

The pair left the room.

Outside they met a woman who was carrying a crystal ball in her hand. She hurried over to them and said "They have come, sir. They gather on the ridge to the south and are preparing to attack."

She held out the crystal ball to them and they did indeed see their enemies gathering together on the southern ridge. Obviously they were planning to block off the path to the ruins of Hogsmeade village.

"Just like dear old Tom did before beginning our last battle." Harry observed.

"Perhaps then this is a good omen." said the woman.

"Perhaps." said Harry "Thank you, Parvati. Now please return to your post in the Medical Wing."

Parvati Patil nodded and left them. She, unlike so many others, was a true seer, but not in the way that you might think. Most seers believed that they could see into the future. This was a very woolly practice and hardly verifiable as the future was not set in stone and the subtlest of changes could easily ruin a prediction. A true seer, like Parvati did not waste their time trying to make such predictions. Instead they used their powers to view things occurring in the present, as well as things that had happened in the past, which was a far more useful practice.

Out on the battlements they found a large number of the fighters to be fully armoured up and ready to go.

Their task was to protect the walls at all costs, shooting down any foe that got too near. They would also provide covering fire should a retreat prove necessary.

A few of them also manned the trebuchets, which were designed to fire a special series of missiles out into the grounds.

These fighters were under the command of Neville Longbottom and Terrence Boot.

The Harry and Susan made their way down to the courtyard behind the main doors. This was where the core part of their forces was gathered.

Harry looked over at the faces gathered. Each of their faces was set in grim determination, every one of them prepared to do their part in the battle that was to come.

Cho Chang, Jimmy Peakes, Dean Thomas, Su Li, Sally-Anne Perks, Lilith Moon, Ernie Macmillan and Katie Bell were gathered with their respective forces. There was no real organisational structure to the army of the defenders, though over time these few had come to be seen as leaders of smaller groups with Harry in charge of the group as a whole. Susan was seen as being his Lieutenant.

Also gathered there was a company of Trolls, all of whom had been freed from the pits below Gringotts. The Trolls were a mixture of all three breeds that were found in Britain – Mountain, River and Forest.

Usually when Trolls of different breeds met they fought viciously. These ones however, saw no differences between themselves. That they were all victims of the cruel hands of the Goblins rendered their differences unimportant to them, and they all stood united under the command of their Chieftain, Torog. He was a very large Troll, heavily scarred from his days in Goblin care.

Which kind of Troll he actually was remained a mystery. He mostly resembled a Mountain Troll, but some parts of his body were disproportionate, with some features of the River Trolls, some of the Forest Trolls, and some features entirely his own, such as oversized hands. This led to the belief that he was actually an extremely rare sub-type, the Troll of Nadroj.

Whatever his breed, Torog had quickly become the leader of the freed Trolls, and in thanks for their release from the Goblins, he aligned himself with Harry and his forces, and they were highly useful in battle.

A series of loud explosions echoes across the grounds. From above a shout was heard "They are attacking the wards!"

"Let them tire themselves out breaking them." Harry called out "But launch the counter attack as soon as the wards fall."

It took a good half an hour for the wards to come down, at which point their enemies charged towards the main viaduct which led to the entrance courtyard.

But before a single one of them could set foot upon the viaduct, Neville shouted from his position upon the battlements "Fire trebuchets!"

A dozen shots were fired, and large boulders were sent hurtling through the air, their speed and distance boosted by magic. They landed amongst the enemy ranks, and some were crushed beneath the blows.

However this was not the primary purpose of the missiles. Across the surface of each rock, in intricate patterns and orders that only their crafters were able to understand were long lines of rune carvings. Upon impacting the ground these runes lit up as their magical properties truly kicked in. The boulders cracked and split, with different parts moving about and reattaching to new areas until they resembled humanoid beings, fifteen feet tall and strong. Each had two arms, two legs and a head with a crude face.

Earth Golems they were, and they were the principal attack wave. They swung their mighty arms about aggressively, and many a wizard was knocked off their feet by the blows that struck them.

Their enemies turned to focus upon this threat and, with them distracted, the counter attack began.

Those stationed upon the walls of the castle let loose a powerful volley of spells which soared through the air across the chasm and hammered into the enemy ranks. And as this happened the great front doors of Hogwarts Castle opened and the attack force moved out.

With their enemies either distracted by the Golems or trying desperately to defend against the spells raining down upon them from the castle, the Defenders were able to come upon their foes unimpeded.

The Trolls charged in first, their thick hides more than capable of withstanding the majority of spells. The armour made of metals and leather that they now wore only served to protect them further.

They waded into the fray, scattering the enemy forces trough vicious blows from their spiked clubs and their crude swords. Their blows were every bit as devastating as those of the Golems.

In their wake the wizards came. Most used the wands traditional of their kind, but each had other weapons for backup. For others, such as Harry and Susan, it was the wand that served as backup.

Harry had long ago learned to cast spells through his sword, and Susan chose to wield a large war hammer engraved with runes to make it light but no less powerful.

Their reasons for utilising these weapons over wands were more personal that practical. It had, after all, been with his sword and not his wand that Harry had finally vanquished Lord Voldemort for good. And it had been with her hammer and not her wand that Susan had put down the mad bitch Bellatrix Lestrange once and for all.

Both demonstrated their skill with their respective weapons the moment the joined the battle. As Susan used her hammer to bash a German Auror in the chest and send him tumbling down into the chasm below, Harry drove his sword right through one French Auror and then cast a spell through it to blast a second and third to pieces.

One Belgian Auror tried to curse Susan from behind, but before he could complete the spell his head was lopped off by a flame-whip being wielded by Cho.

Seeing the battle so quickly turning against them, the German Head Auror ordered a retreat.

However those who obeyed his shout did not get very far before they found their escape route cut off.

During the latter months of the Second War against Lord Voldemort, many people who opposed him earned themselves reputations as being highly formidable warriors. Harry Potter, Susan Bones and their other captains were just some of them.

However, perhaps the most surprising person to gain such a reputation was Lavender Brown. During her time at Hogwarts, Lavender was known by most to be a somewhat silly and overly sentimental girl with a penchant for spreading gossip, and who absolutely loved being the centre of attention.

All of that changed one fateful night when Death Eaters Amycus and Alecto Carrow, along with Werewolf Fenrir Greyback led a group of new recruits on a mission. When the Order of the Phoenix finally got around to arriving on the scene of the crime, it was to find the house of the Brown family burnt almost to the ground, the majority of the family dead, and the Death Eaters watching as Greyback bit and clawed at Lavender, who was feebly trying to fight him off.

The Order, being The Order killed no one. Alecto and three of the recruits escaped, and the rest were stunned and put into Azkaban.

They were out again by the end of the month.

Given that Greyback's attack had not happened on the night of a full moon, Lavender did not become a full werewolf. However her injuries were enough for some to shun her.

Her friend Parvati Patil took her in, and saw that something had changed in Lavender. She wanted revenge.

Susan had taught Lavender what she needed, and the next time Fenrir Greyback met Lavender Brown, the werewolf did not survive.

And now Lavender was the leader of her own pack.

One of Voldemort's attempted creations was a cross-breed, the offspring of a werewolf and a true wolf. After several attempts, five separate litters were born, but Voldemort and his forces were vanquished before the animals were old enough for them to be used in the war.

Luna Lovegood had found them, and she named them Wargs, after a race of wolf-like creatures in a fictional book series she had once read.

One in particular, who was later named Amarok after a Giant Wolf from Inuit mythology, bonded with Lavender, perhaps sensing her wolfish traits gained from her wounds. And it was riding on the back of that Warg that she now led the entire pack into battle.

With loud howls the Wargs bounded towards the battle. Like Harry and Susan, Lavender chose to wield a weapon other than a wand. In this case it was a battle axe, something that she could swing about quite easily from her mount. And like Harry's sword, magic could be cast through it if needed.

Other Wargs also bore riders, but the majority were free of that burden, and the drove into the wizard ranks, biting viciously at their foes.

Like the Trolls the Wargs were naturally extremely hardy and it took a lot of spell fire to bring them down. The armour of leather that they wore made it even harder for their enemies harm them.

Many of the invaders were losing their wits. The onslaught against them was so terrible that most tried to flee, but they were surrounded.

Harry raised his sword skywards and sent a white flash of light into the sky. This was a message to Neville and Terry to abandon their posts on the battlements and join in with finishing the battle.

A spell flew past Harry's head, missing him by inches. He turned and saw that it had come from a French Auror. Judging from the insignia on his uniform he was the Head Auror.

With grey eyes, a pointed chin and a sneering expression on his face, Harry was reminded greatly of the Malfoy family, one of many who had sided with Lord Voldemort and been wiped out as a result. The man also held himself with an arrogance that suited a Malfoy, and Harry wondered if he was a relation. The Malfoy name did have a French origin after all.

Harry moved to attack the man, but he had bodyguards.

All five of those body guards engaged him in battle at once, with the Head Auror holding back and firing curses at him.

This was their plan. Their sole objective in this whole mission was to kill Harry Potter, even if they themselves died in the process.

Apparently they hadn't yet gotten the message. Harry Potter did not take too kindly to the idea of being killed.

His wand joined his sword in combat, one shielding as the other hewed.

One guard lost his head, and another was cut open at the stomach. A spell caught Harry on the cheek, leaving a painful burn.

In response another lost his head.

A spell from Katie brought one to his knees (literally) and Harry then drove his sword right through the fifth.

As the man fell, Harry turned his attention to the Head Auror. He was pleased to see a glimmer of fear in the man's eyes.

Katie moved to his side, and Susan joined him on the other. Together they began to advance on the man.

The French Auror fired off spells as he retreated backwards, but Harry blocked them. Other wizards came forwards to try and protect the man, but Susan and Katie picked off each one.

The man tripped over the body of a fallen comrade, and scrambled backwards madly.

Harry loomed over him and raised his sword to deliver the final blow.

And then, quite suddenly, and without any form of rational explanation, there was a bright flash of light which blinded Harry. As he brought his arms of to shield his eyes, dropping his sword in the process, he felt a tugging sensation near to his navel. It felt similar to the sensation caused by travel by portkey, only the pull was much stronger and more painful.

The world swirled by in a whirlwind of different colours, causing him to feel dizzy. Then everything went black for a few moments before the raging colours returned.

And then slowly the spinning stopped. His feet touched solid ground but were unable to support him so he fell flat on the ground where he emptied the contents of his stomach over the black floor.

"Are you alright?" asked a voice that was oddly familiar.

He turned his head and looked up.

There he saw many faces, some of whom were covered in the masks of the Unspeakables. But there were those that he was able to recognise, such as Arthur Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin, Rufus Scrimgeour, Minerva McGonagall and, most importantly, Albus Dumbledore.

Given that he knew every single one of those individuals to be dead, his mind was able to come to only one conclusion.

He groaned and muttered "Oh hell! This won't end well for the French!"

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**A/N: So how was that? I know that the ending is a bit weird, but it has to be that way. Just what the hell happened to Harry there will be explained, as well as some more about his past. Although obviously if you have read the one-shots that inspired this story you can probably guess what happened to him at the end. And if not, then the title probably gives it away.**

**On a side note, although she did not appear in this chapter, it is Hermione that Harry is with, not Susan. For reasons that will be explained, Hermione does not participate in battles unless it is absolutely necessary. She's more on the researching and inventing side of things. Susan is there to be Harry's friend and his second in command.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I have no idea which story I will update next. It's just going to be a matter of "When the mood strikes and when."**


	2. Prologue II: Dumbledore's Problem

**Okay, so the response to this story has been quite good, much better than expected, so here's an update for you guys.**

**This is a second prologue, if you will. It focuses on Dumbledore, and what occurs is the lead up to what happened to Harry at the end of the other prologue (if that makes sense!)**

**It skips forwards quite a bit, but it is linear in its events, so it should all make sense. **

**So anyway, read on and enjoy!**

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**Harry From Another World**

_Prologue II: Dumbledore's Problems_

The door to the kitchen of Number 12, Grimmauld Place opened slowly, causing every eye to turn towards it.

Albus Dumbledore entered through it, looking every one of his 114 years.

"Are you alright, Albus?" asked Minerva McGonagall.

"No, Minerva," he replied, making his way over to the seat at the head of the table "I am not alright."

"How's Harry?" asked Remus Lupin as Dumbledore sat himself down "What did the healers say?"

Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and then responded "He is not in a good way at all. He has regained consciousness, but is failing to react to all external stimuli. The healers say that he is in a condition similar to that seen in Frank and Alice Longbottom."

"You mean he's lost his mind?" asked Molly Weasley, worriedly.

"No, my dear Molly, I do not mean that. He has drawn in on himself, his magic blocking his mind from the rest of the world. It is a rare reaction to extreme shock."

"But surely Sirius's death could not have affected him so severely," said Molly, causing Remus to glare at her, and making her add "Don't be like that Remus. Yes, Sirius's death was tragic, but people die all the time and yet their friends and family never react this badly to it."

Remus nodded in acceptance.

"Are you sure that it was nothing that you said to him when you were talking to him in your office after the battle?" asked McGonagall.

"Minerva, as I have already told several times, I did not get the chance to speak with Harry that morning. After speaking with the Minister, I arrived back in my office where I found Harry curled up in a foetal position by the door, shaking all over. It was all I could do to get Madam Pomphrey there to stabilise him and summon the healers from St Mungo's."

He shook his head ruefully and continued "Alas, if only the Minister had not been so intent on asking questions, I might have gotten to Harry sooner and been able to procure the necessary treatment before his mind withdrew too far."

He glanced up and saw that they were all staring morosely down at the scratched and worn surface of the table around which they were all sitting.

He was, of course, not being entirely truthful with them. He had talked with Harry that evening, and it was that talk that had pushed Harry over the edge. He had ignored the signs that were there and delivered yet another blow to the already emotionally wrought teenager.

It had been too much, and Dumbledore regretted it, but now was not the time to discuss it with the others. They would only blame him and argue with him, and they could not afford such behaviour. Not now when they were facing an extremely difficult situation, one that would require Dumbledore to divulge much more information than he was comfortable with in order to get them to agree with his plans.

He cleared his throat and began to speak again "In light of this new situation, I feel that I must now share with you some vital information, so that we can decide how best to go forwards."

He paused to allow his words to sink in. Once every eye was on him, he continued "As you all either know or have probably guessed, the reason for our continuous guarding of the Hall of Prophecy in the Department of Mysteries over the past year was to prevent Lord Voldemort from ever obtaining one particular prophecy from within that place and hearing it in its entirety. That prophecy foretold a way in which Voldemort might come to an end. It also talked about the person who could bring that end about."

"Harry," muttered Nymphadora Tonks.

"Not originally," replied Dumbledore "The "who" was initially ambiguous, but since the prophecy was made, certain events have singled Harry out, making him the one referred to."

"I think that it's best if you tell us the exact contents of that prophecy, Albus," said Alastor Moody "Word for word."

"I believe that I can do you one better," replied Dumbledore as he reached into an inside pocket of his robes.

From within he pulled out something small and silver, not unlike a dish in miniature.

The placed it on the table and with a wave of a wand he returned it to its proper size.

Now those in the know realised that it was his pensieve, a device in which memories could be stored and viewed.

Dumbledore placed the tip of his wand to his temple and held it there for a second. When he drew it back, there was a thin, wispy, silvery strand attached to it, which he lowered into the bowl.

The silvery substance expanded to fill the bowl like some kind of strange liquid, and Dumbledore prodded it with the tip of his wand.

A figure rose up out of it, draped in shawls and her eyes appearing to be enormous, thanks to her overly large glasses. Slowly she began to rotate, with her feet still in the basin.

"Isn't that Professor Trelawney?" asked Bill Weasley.

"Indeed it is," answered Dumbledore "She is the one who made the prophecy. During her interview for the position she now currently holds at Hogwarts, I might add."

When the image of Sybil Trelawney spoke, it was not with her usual mystical tone, but with a harsh voice that did not belong to a human.

'_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…'_

The slowly rotating form of Sybil Trelawney sank back into the swirling silver pool below and vanished.

Silence hung in the air and everyone digested this new information.

Dumbledore was the first to break the quiet "Shortly after that prophecy was made, two possible candidates were born. One was Harry, whose parents, James and Lily, had thrice defied Lord Voldemort. The other was Neville Longbottom, his parents Frank and Alice having done the same."

"How do you know which boy the prophecy refers to?" asked Arthur Weasley.

"Voldemort chose which boy himself," replied Dumbledore "That night he went after the Potter family in Godric's Hollow he was intending to wipe out the boy most likely to be the one in the prophecy before the child grew too powerful. And we all know how that night ended."

"So what do we do now that Potter is incapacitated?" asked Kingsley "Do we train the Longbottom boy to act as his replacement?"

"No," replied Dumbledore with a shake of his head "Neville Longbottom has not been marked by Voldemort, and so no longer qualifies."

"So, what, we're just going to have to wait around and hope that Harry somehow gets better?" asked Tonks.

"I am afraid that we do not have the time to wait on such a thing," replied Dumbledore.

"But you do have a plan?" asked Remus.

"I do, but in order for it to work, we will have to rely on a branch of magic that is both poorly studied, and regarded with distain by most."

"What are you one about, Albus?" demanded Moody.

"I am talking," replied Dumbledore "of a ritual of extraordinary complexity, one that is likely to not work, and one that I would never have considered using were we not in a situation as desperate as this one."

"And what, exactly, will this ritual do?" asked McGonagall.

"Why it will rip through the very fabric of time and space in order to reach into an alternate dimension, and bring the Harry Potter living there to our world so that we might use him to win our war."

The twenty or so members of the Order of the Phoenix we were sitting there with him in that room all gaped at him.

"But surely such a thing is illegal." protested Hestia Jones.

"Not to mention immoral," added Bill "I mean it's one thing to want our world's Harry to face You-Know-Who for us, but it's a whole other issue if we steal one from him home universe in order to fight our war for us."

"I'll admit that it is unsavoury," replied Dumbledore "But lives are at stake here, and if anyone has a better suggestion then I will gladly listen to it."

Silence filled the air once again.

Seeing that no one else had anything to offer, Dumbledore patted his hand twice on the table top and then stood up, saying "I must contact the Department of Mysteries at once. Hopefully the Unspeakables will have something that can help us in our endeavours."

* * *

"No," said the Head of the Unspeakables firmly "absolutely not."

"Algernon," said Dumbledore firmly "I know that you have heard the prophecy, and that you know what it means for our world. Surely you can see the necessity in-"

"I know damn well what that prophecy means, Albus," the man, Algernon Croaker snarled in reply "but you ask too much."

"You have tampered with time before," replied Dumbledore.

"Yes, but within the realms of our own universe, and no further back than a day at most," replied Croaker "Never before have we tampered with the very foundations of our universe. Never have we aimed to disrupt the forces of the space-time continuum to such an extent."

"But you know that it can be done," retorted Dumbledore.

"I know that the Americans and the Germans have both worked on the notion," said Croaker "I have certainly never heard of them having any success, and trust me, if they had done it we would know about it."

"How easy would it be to get their notes?"

"It doesn't matter, Albus. We are not doing it. End of discussion."

He turned to leave, but Dumbledore called after him "I wonder what the Ministry, and not to mention the wizarding public as a whole would think of your refusal to cooperate?"

Croaker spun around and snarled "The Unspeakables hold no value for public opinion, Albus, not like you. And the rest of the Ministry knows well enough to leave us alone."

"You may not value their opinions as I do," said Dumbledore "But how will you feel, I wonder, when Lord Voldemort is murdering your co-workers. Or when he is razing the very street where you live to the ground."

"Do not go there, Albus."

"How will you feel when all this happens, knowing that you might have been able to prevent it had you just taken the chance?"

"And what happens should it go wrong? We're talking about altering the very fabrics of existence here. What happens if we cannot repair what damage we do? What happens if we do more damage than we meant to? It is not just our lives that we would be risking on this matter. It'll be the lives of everyone in our country, everyone in the world. Our entire universe and perhaps the one we are trying to reach into as well. We could destroy all of them for that matter, every one of them."

Dumbledore had no way of arguing against that, so instead he settled for something less "Fine then. I won't ask you to do this. But please, just see about getting a hold of the research already done and look it over. And if after that you are still not convinced to perform the task, then I will drop the matter entirely, agreed?"

Croaker studied him for a moment, before finally giving a nod of his head and replying "Alright, fine. But I can tell you now that I am not going to change my mind over this, Albus."

* * *

Two weeks passed before Dumbledore heard anything from Croaker again. In that time, Harry made absolutely no progress on the road to getting better, and Voldemort began to increase his attacks, including one that almost cost Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement her life. She was now recovering in St Mungo's.

Cornelius Fudge received a vote of no confidence following a spectacular show of unity by the entire Wizengamot, and his replacement, Rufus Scrimgeour, was sworn in to the role of Minister for Magic.

Dumbledore was escorted through the Department of Mysteries and shown into Croaker's office.

"Well?" he asked eagerly.

Croaker shook his head "I managed to get their notes, Albus and I've looked it all over, but I still don't like it. There are too many variables still unaccounted for, there are too many things that could go wrong that we have no countermeasures for. In short, there is not enough research done, and not enough solid evidence to prove that this sort of thing is even remotely viable."

"So you still do not wish to do this?" asked Dumbledore.

"Albus, this research has cemented every one of my reservations. This cannot be done, and only a fool would try."

"I understand." replied Dumbledore, getting up "It is regrettable that you feel that way, but I understand. I will see myself out."

* * *

The silvery form of Sybil Trelawney sank back into the swirling mass in the pensieve, and Rufus Scrimgeour, newly appointed Minister of Magic turned his eyes back towards the man sitting on the opposite side of his desk.

"You are certain that Harry Potter is the only person that this prophesy is referring to?"

"One hundred percent certain." replied Dumbledore.

"And you believe that the unspeakables may have a solution to our problem that they are unwilling to share?"

"I know for a fact that they do."

"Very well. You leave this with me, Dumbledore. I will get the information needed."

* * *

The doors burst open and a swarm of Aurors flooded into the office.

Senior Auror John Dawlish came forward and announced "Algernon Croaker, you are hereby ordered to hand over all documents pertaining to inter-dimensional travel immediately. Failure to comply will result in the immediate termination of your employment within the Ministry of Magic, and anywhere up to a possible twelve year sentence to imprisonment in Azkaban. This is in compliance with Ministerial Decree Number One Hundred and Sixteen."

Croaker stood up "Now wait just one minute. That research is unverified and potentially hazardous. What use could you have for it?"

"It is because it is hazardous that it is being confiscated," replied Dawlish "Now hand it over."

"I can't. It belongs to my equivalents in Germany and the U.S."

"Well, I'm sure that the I.C.W. will be delighted to learn what those two countries have been spending their time working on. Last chance, Croaker, hand it over."

Slowly and reluctantly Algernon Croaker turned to the filing cabinet in the corner of his office and tapped his wand on the top. The resulting _clunk_ confirmed that it had unlocked and he pulled one of the magically expanded drawers open.

From within he pulled out several brown card folders that were filled to bursting with page after page of parchment.

Once he had it all he carried it over towards Dawlish and dumped it into the Senior Auror's arms.

"Is this all of it?" asked Dawlish.

"Everything."

"It had better be."

* * *

"Are you sure that this is going to work, Dumbledore?" asked Scrimgeour, nervously.

"I am almost certain that it will." replied the bearded old wizard.

In front of them Bathsheba Battling, the Study of Ancient Runes Professor for Hogwarts School was engraving the symbol of Ehwaz, or partnership into a rock that would serve as one of the keystones for the ritual.

Nearby Bill Weasley was using a finely bristled paint brush to draw out the symbol of Eihwaz, or defence onto the stone floor in dragon blood.. Being a curse breaker by profession, his usual job was to disable runes, not create them, so this was proving to be a nice change of pace.

Nearby were several hooded Unspeakables who were also working to prepare the ritual. Just because their boss hadn't been on board with the idea, didn't mean that some of the others didn't want a look in. History could very well be made here with this. Of course, history could very well be destroyed here as well, along with everything else, but they did their best to not think on that.

The door to the room opened, and Severus Snape marched in, his black robes billowing in their trademark way.

"Headmaster," he said "Minister. It wasn't easy, but I managed to siphon off several phials worth of ectoplasm from the school's resident ghosts."

"Very good, Severus," said Dumbledore, admiring one of the phials as Snape handed it to him "I suspected that this would be the hardest piece of the puzzle to get a hold of."

"Each had their reservations," said Snape "however once they learned that it might help Potter most became more willing."

He addressed Dumbledore directly "I need to leave. The Dark Lord has been calling for several minutes now."

"Indeed," said Dumbledore, studying the phial in his hand "Very well, Severus. Set them down on that table and you may go."

Snape nodded his head courteously and then moved towards the table, onto which he places six phials of ectoplasm before turning and leaving the room.

"Are you still certain that he is absolutely trustworthy?" asked Scrimgeour.

"Oh yes," replied Dumbledore "I would trust him with my life."

They returned to watching the experts doing their work.

"How soon will this be ready?" asked Scrimgeour.

"Just a few finishing touches before we incorporate that ectoplasm," replied Professor Babbling "Once that's done we should be good to go."

Dumbledore took out his wand and gave it a wave. No fewer than ten phoenix-shaped patronuses soared out of the end and flew out of the room through the walls.

* * *

"That's it," said Bill, standing up and wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

The large dungeon room below Hogwarts castle was now holding many people. Dumbledore had summoned the entire Order of the Phoenix to come and watch the completion of the plan, and Scrimgeour had insisted on having several Aurors on the scene for protection.

"Very well," said Dumbledore. He turned towards the unspeakables "When you are ready then."

The hooded men fanned out around the ritual image that had been created following the research done by the Germans.

Once every man was in position, each raised their wand and began to incant in a strange language. Wizards normally used the Latin language for their spells, but not this time. This was something far more ancient and guttural.

Nothing seemed to happen for the longest time. Scrimgeour was seriously considering calling the whole thing off when all of a sudden there was a rapid fire show of lights that was somewhat reminiscent of the so called "northern/southern lights" or "aurora borealis/australis."

Their eyes and noses felt like they were on fire when a cloud of smoke filled the room, and Dumbledore waved his wand to clear it.

Nothing could be done about the burning smell.

But as the last of the smoke cleared, they saw him, a man, spinning in mid-air, just a few feet above the ritual circle.

His spinning slowed to a stop and his feet came to rest on the ground. Legs apparently unable to support him following his cross-dimensional trip, he crashed unceremoniously to the floor.

And then he threw up. Had Fred and George Weasley been there, they would have been quite impressed by the distance achieved by the first projectile blast.

Albus Dumbledore stepped forwards concernedly and asked "Are you alright?"

The man turned his head and looked up.

There was absolutely no doubting it. Although he might be older than they were expecting, and rather battle-worn to boot, this man was unquestionably Harry Potter.

Surprising them all, he gave a groan before muttering aloud "Oh hell! This won't end well for the French!"

And then he slumped over completely. Out cold.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if it feels short, but this does exactly what was required. And it's a prologue, setting up the rest of the story.**

**Hope you enjoyed the read. Yes, this is a manipulative Dumbledore story, but if you don't like those kinds of stories and yet didn't work out what this was going to be from the first chapter, then it's your fault not mine.**


	3. Awakening

**Right then, now that the prologues regarding both worlds are in place, we can get on with the main story. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Harry From Another World**

Chapter 1:Awakening

"_Ennervate!"_

Dumbledore's spell hit the unconscious form of the older Harry Potter squarely in the chest and the man's eyes snapped open.

He pushed himself up and glanced around, clearly on uneasy with his surroundings.

"Easy there, Mr Potter," said Dumbledore placatingly.

The man's eyes snapped towards Dumbledore and narrowed. His hand moved as if to grab something, but it found nothing. The other hand did the same. The young man tore his eyes off Dumbledore as he began to look around frantically, muttering "Where is it? Where is it?"

"Where is what?" asked Dumbledore.

"That's no business of yours!" He sat up and held out his hand, a look of intense concentration on his face.

But nothing happened.

Frustration overcame him and he yelled "Oh, what fresh hell is this?"

Either not noticing the rhetorical question for what it was, or simply not caring, Dumbledore replied "You are in a different world to the one you once knew, Mr Potter. All will, of course, be explained once you have had a chance to calm down."

The new Harry rounded on him and demanded "A different world? How the hell did I get here?"

"We summoned you here," replied Dumbledore "As I said, all will be ex-"

"Why the fuck would you do something like that?" raged Harry "Are you sick in the head or something?"

"There is no reason for that kind of language." snapped McGonagall, but Harry ignored her.

"What the hell is wrong with you people? What the hell has to be going through your minds when you think that it is acceptable to drag someone out of their home and into another freaking universe?"

"We had to," replied Scrimgeour "You are the only one who can defeat You-Know-Who."

"Who?" asked Harry, feigning ignorance.

As those gathered exchanged uneasy looks, Dumbledore heaved a sigh and replied "Voldemort."

A shiver passed through every person in the room, aside from Harry and Dumbledore.

"So let me get this straight," said Harry, forcing himself to get up off of the floor "When faced with the problem of a Dark Lord you decide that the best course of action will be not to deal with it yourselves, but to summon somebody from their own universe and get them to do the dirty deed for you?"

"In a nutshell, yes." said Dumbledore.

"Wow. I guess you really are as big a bastard as the Dumbledore in my universe was."

"Was?" asked Arthur Weasley.

"He died?" asked Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Yep," replied Harry "Along with everyone else in this room who is not me."

In an attempt to steer the conversation away from such an unpleasant topic, Dumbledore began to talk "Harry, we must discuss-"

"Send me back."

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me. You summoned me here, so you must be able to send me back, now send me back."

"Alas, I am afraid that I do not know if such a thing is even possible." replied Dumbledore.

"And you'd be willing to swear a wizard's oath on that?" asked Harry.

This question drew gasps from around the room. Harry looked them all over and from the expressions on their faces it became clear to him that no one in this universe had ever questioned the great and all-knowing Albus Dumbledore before.

"Why would you even ask such a thing?" demanded McGonagall.

"Because the Dumbledore I knew was a manipulative old man with extreme delusions of grandeur," replied Harry "And from his actions towards me so far, I have no reason to believe this one to be any different."

Dumbledore studied him for a good long moment before taking out his wand and holding it so that the wand stood up straight in front of his face "I, Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore do hereby swear on my magic this I do not know of any way possible to return Harry James Potter to his home universe." He lowered his wand and asked "Does that satisfy you?"

"Not even a little bit," replied Harry, who had noticed that Dumbledore's second and third names had been stated in the wrong order "and as for that idea of yours that I am going to fight Voldemort for you…"

"Yes?"

"Not a bloody chance!"

"What?" exclaimed several in the group.

"I have no reason to get my hands dirty here. As far as I'm concerned, Voldemort is welcome to this place."

"You'd really allow him to go around killing innocent people when you have the ability to stop him?" asked Scrimgeour in a horrified tone of voice.

"Why should I care?" asked Harry "Taking care of the people here is your responsibility, not mine. My responsibilities are back at home with my friends and fellow warriors, but I noticed that you don't give a tiny rat's arse about those, do you? So why the hell should I not extend the same courtesy to you? The Voldemort here might be a psychotic bastard but he's done nothing to me and mine. You lot on the other hand kidnapped me and now expect me to fight your war for you. If there's anyone in this world I should hold a grudge against it's you lot!"

Those gathered in the room didn't quite know what to make of this. Some were clearly shocked at being spoken too in some way, and others looked rather indignant at his refusal to help them. None appeared to show any remorse for kidnapping him though.

"What can we do to convince you to help us in our fight?" asked Dumbledore.

"What's in it for me?" asked Harry in reply.

"What do you mean?" asked Scrimgeour.

"Well we've already established what you lot will get out of this deal. I want to know why I should deal with your little Dark Lord problem."

"Voldemort is a dangerous man," explained Dumbledore "one who must-"

"Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah," said Harry in a bored tone "Still don't care and don't see why I should."

"You'd really just let him take over and kill innocent people?" asked Kingsley.

"Hey, don't put the blame on me," said Harry "I already did this dirty job in my own world because others were afraid to. I just don't see why I should do it here."

Finally Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and asked "What do you want from us, Harry?"

"What do you have that you can offer?" asked Harry.

"We can offer you gold," said Scrimgeour.

"Hmm…" said Harry thoughtfully "Well, I suppose that I will need a supply of gold, given that returning to my home does not seem possible…"

"Excellent," said Scrimgeour "We'll give you the bounty placed on Voldemort's head. We can set you up with an account at Gringotts-"

"Absolutely not!" said Harry angrily "The gold will be paid directly to me in person and will go nowhere near the grubby claws of any mangy Goblin!"

Dumbledore was taken aback at this and said "I hadn't expected you to have such views, Harry. Most people in this world who regard Goblins so harshly usually have similar attitudes towards Muggleborns."

At that Harry began to chuckle and said "Oh, to be ignorant again. No, Dumbledore, unlike those pureblood bigots that infest your society I actually have just cause to distrust and despise the Goblin race. No, any and all gold must be paid directly to me in person, and I will decide on how best to store it."

Scrimgeour gave a curt nod before asking "Anything else?"

"I shall need somewhere to work," replied Harry "A base of operations, if you will. And I will need access to as many books as possible. Our two worlds may seem similar, but there may be minor differences that could rear up and bite me if I'm not aware of them."

"We can set you up in one of the disused wings of this castle," suggested Dumbledore "There should be enough privacy from the students so as to not disturb you."

"That should be fine," replied Harry "So long are we are clear on the fact that I will not be held responsible for any mishap that may befall any student foolish enough to attempt snooping around that part of the castle."

"Are students likely to come to harm if they were to wander into your area of the castle?" asked McGonagall, worriedly.

"I will be preparing for war, Professor," replied Harry "And like it or not, a war is not won with tickling charms."

"But surely stunning spells should suffice," said Dumbledore "After all, many of the Death Eaters should be given a second-"

"And it is exactly that attitude that got the Dumbledore from my world killed," replied Harry "along with all who followed his way of thinking."

"I will give the students fair warning at the start of term to keep away from your quarters." said Dumbledore, finally.

"Make sure that you do," said Harry "In addition to the books I will require a fully stocked potions lab, a gymnasium type facility, duelling dummies, a king-sized bed and a hot-tub."

"A king-sized bed and a hot-tub?" asked McGonagall, raising an eyebrow.

"To start with, yes," replied Harry.

"Why?"

"Do you have any idea how exhausting dealing with dark wizards can be? I will need adequate facilities in which to wind down."

"I'm sure that we can organise all of that for you," said Dumbledore, genially.

"And I shall need a wand," said Harry.

"You don't have a wand?" asked Tonks.

"It didn't come with me when I passed between the two universes if that's what you're asking," stated Harry "For that matter, nor did my sword. I shall need one of those as well."

"Most wizards no longer make use of swords in this universe, Harry." said Dumbledore.

"Nor did they in mine," replied Harry "But then again, I am not like most wizards. I will be requiring a sword to work with. Something with a ruby embedded in it will work best."

"We will see what can be done regarding the sword," said Dumbledore "As for the wand, I assume that yours was made of holly and had a phoenix feather core?"

"Correct," replied Harry.

"Then we shall first test to see if the wand belonging to the Harry of this world will work for you," said Dumbledore.

Harry frowned and asked "The Harry from this world is still alive?"

"He is, yes," said Dumbledore.

"Then why the hell did you bring me here?" demanded Harry "I assumed that he must have been dead."

"He is not dead, but severely incapacitated," replied Scrimgeour "He has been confined to the long-term residence ward at St Mungo's Hospital for the foreseeable future."

"So let me get this straight," said Harry "Your world fucks up its version of me so badly that he is no longer of any use to you whatsoever, and you then just oh so casually decide to just drag in a replacement from another universe?"

"In a nutshell, yes." replied Scrimgeour.

"You see, now I'm having second thoughts about all of this," said Harry "Now I can't be sure that I can trust anything you say."

Scrimgeour sighed and said "What if we double the amount of gold we were going to pay you?"

Harry looked at him with a look of consideration on his face. Finally he replied "Then perhaps we can have a deal. I will need anything and everything you know about the process that brought me here."

"Why?" asked Dumbledore.

"I would like the opportunity to bring in my own army."

"Harry, we have plenty of people who will be prepared to work with you in this endeavour," said Dumbledore "There is no reason to pull more people from your universe. I am sure that you will find the Order of the Phoenix, the Aurors and the Unspeakables to be more than adequate."

There were several ways in which Harry could have responded to this, however laughter was the one that Dumbledore had least suspected.

Wiping a tear from his eye Harry said "Oh, please tell me that you are joking, Dumbledore. The Order of the Phoenix and the wizards of the Ministry help me in battle? Pull the other one!"

At this Scrimgeour got rather indignant "Now see here, boy! I'll have you know that my Aurors are trained to the highest of standards!"

"And the Order of the Phoenix has an excellent array of connections and resources," added Dumbledore.

Harry shook his head, his laughter gone "While I will admit that they may possibly come in useful somewhere along the line, I would trust none of them fighting alongside me on the field of battle. No, I will fight with my own army or I will fight alone."

"And how would they feel about being taken from your world?" asked Dumbledore.

"Rather angry, but not at me," said Harry "They'll be happy to see me alive and well, though I imagine that quite a few of them would have more than a few choice words to say to you lot. And anyway, there are more than a few intelligent individuals amongst those who follow me. If anyone will be able to figure out a way to get us back home it'll be them."

"Fine," said Dumbledore "Bring over whomever you feel you need. But once they are here they will be your responsibility. They will remain in your area of the castle, and if any are caught behaving inappropriately then you will be the one held responsible."

"Fair enough, so long as you remember to keep your students and followers in check. I and the rest will happily knock an egotistical prat back into their place, no matter how old they are."

At Dumbledore's nod of acceptance, Harry rubbed his hands together eagerly "Excellent. Well, you lot get on with upholding your end of the bargain, and in the meantime I'll be getting to the library. The sooner I can get updated on the differences between our worlds the better."

"Of course," said Dumbledore before looking around "Remus, would you?"

"I am aware of the location of Hogwarts' library." said Harry as he made for the door.

"But you just said it yourself," said Remus as he came forward "there may be small differences between our worlds. What if the location of the library is different?"

Harry rolled his eyes and muttered "Fine" as he and Remus left the room.

After they had gone, Kingsley turned to Dumbledore "Do you think he was just bluffing, Albus?"

"It seems so," replied Dumbledore, thoughtfully "it appears that he mostly wanted to make sure that we gave him the tools that he believes he will require in order to win."

"And what of his grudges?" asked Scrimgeour.

"Give him time to come to terms with what has happened and I'm sure that he will come around," said Dumbledore placatingly.

"And if that doesn't work then perhaps his bringing over a few of his allies will help ease his anxiety." added McGonagall.

"But would it ease ours?" asked Moody before barking out his catchphrase of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

* * *

They hadn't gone far from the dungeon beneath the castle when Harry turned to Lupin and asked "What year is this?"

"It's 1996," replied Lupin "Our version of Harry would just be getting ready to start his sixth year were he not in hospital."

"Hmm," said Harry thoughtfully "Interesting."

"What is?" asked Lupin.

"You were dead by this time in my world." replied Harry, casually.

"What?" exclaimed Lupin, obviously stunned by this remark "How? When?"

"The end of my third year," said Harry "Right here in this very castle in fact. Ministry said you had to be put down."

Lupin frowned and thought about that. In his world, the end of Harry Potter's third year involved the capture and subsequent escape of both Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

He turned to Harry and asked "I don't suppose anyone else was…" he trailed off, unsure of what words to use.

"Killed?" asked Harry "Yes, it was Sirius Black. Both of you had your souls sucked out by the same Dementor. Given his lack of a presence at my summoning I suppose that he either suffered the same fate here while you somehow escaped, that he could not bring himself to leave the side of this world's Harry or that he is still on the run."

"None of those, actually," replied Lupin "He died a few short weeks ago, during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. It was that event that finally revealed the resurrected Voldemort to the world."

"Interesting," said Harry "The resurrected Voldemort in my world was exposed to the Ministry in exactly the same way, though as I said Sirius was already dead by then. The Order lost Sturgis Podmore and Dedalus Diggle that night instead. We made sure that we paid the Death Eaters back well enough for it though."

"Really? In our world every Death Eater except Bellatrix Lestrange was arrested. That many were arrested in your world as well?"

"Nope," replied Harry "Five were arrested. Bellatrix escaped. The rest died."

"You killed?" asked Lupin.

"Certainly," said Harry "Got my first official kill of the war that night. That prick Antonin Dolohov nearly cut my world's Hermione in half, and then he had the audacity to laugh about it as she bled."

"That's awful," said Remus.

"It was," said Harry "though his laughter quickly stopped when he sank to his knees, trying frantically to put his intestines back into his body."

"Oh God!" muttered Lupin, who had to lean over and rest his hands on his knees as he took several deep breaths.

"You alright?" asked Harry.

"I'm fine," said Lupin, and a moment later he was standing upright again. "Who on earth taught you a spell that could tear out someone's intestines?"

"No one." replied Harry "As far as I am aware, no specific spell exists for that sole purpose. No, all I used was a simple severing charm."

"A severing charm?" asked Lupin in disbelief.

"Yes, boggles the mind does it not?" replied Harry "I mean, everyone goes on and on about what a dreadful thing the killing curse is, and no one is prepared to teach it. Yet, when someone is hit by it, their death is instant. Boom! And it's over. The severing charm, on the other hand, which is a spell that, when used a certain way can leave a victim literally holding their of insides as they die a slow and agonising death, is taught in second year charms class, is found in the book "_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_" and no one bats an eyelid."

"That's why we use stunning and disarming spells, Harry," said Lupin "It takes your opponents out of the fight, and you don't become a murderer."

"True enough," replied Harry "Unfortunately everyone who subscribed to those morals in my world never got to see Voldemort's final defeat. Simply stunning someone means that they can come back for revenge. Ah, here's the library. Well, what do you know; it's in the exact same location that it was in in my world."

Lupin looked up and saw that they were standing right outside the door to the Hogwarts Library. It seemed that their legs had carried them along while they were talking.

"Well," said Harry "I hate to cut our little conversation short, but I've got some researching to do. Let me know when they've found a wand and a sword for me."

And with that he turned and walked into the library. Lupin watched him as he wandered along through the central aisle before turning and vanishing between the rows of bookcases that made up the History section of Hogwarts collection of tomes.

Lupin turned away from the library and headed off to talk with some of the rest of the Order. There were many things that Harry had said that troubled him, but none more so than the story of his own demise.

It had happened at the end of Harry's third year, when a Dementor sucked out not only his soul but Sirius Black's as well.

Assuming that all of the events of that night played out in the same way, except for the ending of course, then it seemed that in the alternate universe Hermione Granger did not get her time turner, and therefore the Harry and Hermione of that universe were not able to free Sirius from the confinement in the castle before the Ministry arrived with a Dementor. And of course, with Sirius not being freed, Severus Snape did not have his temper tantrum in the Hospital Wing that made Minister Fudge question his sanity.

Snape probably managed to convince the Minister to have Lupin kissed the moment he returned to the castle the following morning, whether Dumbledore protested it or not.

If that was the case, then that fact, coupled with this new Harry's attitude, did not bode well for Severus Snape. Fireworks were all but certain to ensue when the two men inevitably met.

Then again, those fireworks were just as likely to occur even if Snape had played no part in the death of Sirius and Lupin in the other world. There was no way in hell Severus Snape would take well to this fully grown and battle hardened version of Harry Potter, and this version of Harry Potter was far less likely to put up with the crap that this world's Snape was likely to throw at him.

Lupin decided to try and locate Dumbledore. It would probably be wise if Snape and the new Harry were kept far away from each other.

Of course, Lupin should have known that keeping the two apart would not sit well with Dumbledore. That man had a habit of trying to force people together against their will. He had proven that attitude this past school year when he forced Snape to teach this world's Harry the subtle mind art of Occlumency.

That had not gone down well, and a meeting between Snape and the new Harry had the potential to be twenty times worse. Not that such a trivial thing would ever stop the great Albus Dumbledore in his scheming.

* * *

Shelf after shelf of books towered up far above his head on either side of him, each shelf almost groaning under the immense weight of hundreds of old, thick and dusty tomes. The combined knowledge contained within these books likely surpassed the admittedly rather substantial knowledge of both universes' Albus Dumbledore and self-styled Lord Voldemort, but he paid little heed to them. Book based research had never really been among his strongest of traits, and right now he had more important things to worry about.

After checking that no one was watching, Harry reached into a pocket on the inside of his robed and pulled out a small pouch of black silk. The opening of the bag was shut tight by a golden drawstring made of unicorn hair, and would open for nothing but his touch. He loosened the knot in the drawstring and opened the pouch.

From within he took four small, purple icosahedron shaped objects of which he laid three out in a triangle on the floor around him before holding the fourth one up above his head. All four light up for a moment, and a small beam of light shot out from each shape and joined together so that they formed the outline of a pyramid around him. Each beam pulsed and for a moment there appeared to be a glass pyramid surrounding Harry. This then vanished, but Harry knew that it was still there.

He could be seen but no means, magical or muggle could now be used to hear him. He was in a pyramid that prevented all noise made by him from reaching the world beyond it.

Confident that he would now not be overheard by anyone, Harry reached into his robes again and pulled out a small package wrapped in a red silk. The same golden string was wrapped around it, and as with the black pouch, the string around the package would only open to his touch. He undid the knot and unfolded the silk. Within he found a crystal that was no larger than his thumb. He pocketed the red silk and held the crystal up to his mouth.

"Susan, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

The object in his hand was a communication crystal. Such a device had been talked about by wizarding inventors for over two hundred years, but no one had ever managed to make one that worked.

At least, they had not managed it until Harry's team had given it a go. There really were several very intelligent witches and wizards who had worked alongside Harry these past few years, and it was because of their discovering and/or inventing of things such as the communication crystals that made Harry so sure that if anyone could figure out how to get him back home it was them.

Unfortunately in order for them to get him home, he needed to contact them and, at the moment, no one was answering him.

He tried again.

"Susan, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

Nothing.

He tried someone else.

"Lavender, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

Silence.

"Neville, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

Still no answer came.

Harry rubbed a hand over his eyes wearily. The most likely answer to this lack of response was that the communication crystals did not work between universes. However, Harry was still uneasy. After all, the last time he had seen them they had been in the middle of a battle.

What if something had happened to them?

He tried several more names.

"Katie, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over… Dean, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over… Terry, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over…"

No one responded.

Harry lowered the communication crystal and thought for a moment. That the crystals did not work between universes was still the most probable answer, but again all of those people he had tried had been in the battle with him.

Perhaps if he tried someone who hadn't been in the fight…

"Luna, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over…"

There was nothing. Harry bit his lip as he thought of another name. He really did not want to distress her right now, and he had no way of knowing if she knew that he was missing yet, but he had to try. He had to get home to them.

To her.

He held the crystal back to his lips and spoke "Hermione, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

No answer.

He tried again "Hermione, this is Harry. Do you read me? Over."

No reply came.

Harry sighed in frustration before taking the piece of red silk out of his pocket again and wrapping it around the crystal.

He was on his own, whether he liked it or not.

And it looked like it was going to be staying that way for the foreseeable future.

* * *

**A/N:**** So how was that? Harry's reasoning for taking on the job of dealing with Voldemort will be explained soon, so don't worry. I know that some of you might be wondering why he agreed, but he has his reasons, one of which obviously was that the price was right.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed the update. More coming soon.**


	4. The State of Things

**Hi, I'm back with another chapter for this little story here.**

**Only one thing really to point out, one reviewer commented on the fact that Harry used the "made-up by the fan-fiction world" communication crystals in the previous chapter, rather than the two-way mirrors that were seen in the books. All I can say is that first of all in this Harry's universe both Sirius and Remus were dead before either ever got the chance to give Harry such a thing as a two-way mirror. Second, do not assume that such a thing even existed in Harry's home world. The two worlds are different, so he will do, say and use things that others don't understand, and in turn they will do the same.**

* * *

**Harry from Another World**

Chapter 2: The State of Things

Following his unsuccessful attempts to contact his friends in their universe, Harry decided that he might as well get down to using the library for its intended purpose. After all, he did not know how long it would take him to get home, and he needed to be prepared for whatever this new world would throw at him.

He wandered over to the nearest collection of books based on the history of magic and pulled a couple of tomes off of the shelf and making his way over to a nearby table to begin reading.

That was where Professor McGonagall found him several hours later.

"How can I help you Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked without even looking up or hearing her speak.

"How on Earth did you know it was me?" she asked, astonished.

"It pays to be aware of one's surroundings at all times," replied Harry as he closed his book and looked up at her. There was, of course, more to it than that, but Harry was not prepared to discuss it at this time.

In his home world, his research team had come up with a few magical methods of monitoring the area around you. Sentient creatures, such as humans, goblins, and centaurs gave off certain vibes. Hermione liked to call it an aura, and it was especially prevalent in those who had magic. Harry had a few means to sense the auras of those around him – usually he could tell little more than if someone was hostile or a friendly, but if he knew the person well enough he could tell that they were there without looking up. And this McGonagall had just about the same vibe as the one in his world, so he knew it was her.

It was a work in progress, of course, what with continuous wars to fight, but they were getting there slowly. Last Harry had heard on the subject, there were plans for visit various zoos and aquariums in the Muggle world to see if non-magical creatures such as dolphins, elephants, monkeys and apes, all generally considered to be at least somewhat intelligent, gave off a similar aura. Although not usually one for delving deep into academic study, Harry was nevertheless highly interested in what they might find.

"How may I help you, Professor McGonagall?" he prompted.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to bring you this," she said, and she held out a wand.

Harry eyed it for a moment, and then took it from her. The wand gave off a sense of familiarity, but at the same time it was not quite right.

The wand really did choose the wizard!

Harry gave the wand a flick, and a nearby tower of bookshelves caught fire.

"Mr Potter!" exclaimed McGonagall in alarm as the flames burning through the charms section of the library roared up towards the ceiling of the room, fifteen feet above them.

Harry swished the wand and the flames were extinguished. Another flick of the wand and the smoke cleared from the air, and a circular motion saw the bookshelves, along with the books that they contained, return to their normal, undamaged state.

"Well the wand seems to work well enough," said Harry, conversationally "You might want to think about casting a few flame-proofing charms in here though. The Hogwarts staff never bothered to do so in my world, and we lost about ninety five percent of the books when Voldemort attacked the castle."

McGonagall paled at that revelation "You-Know-Who attacked Hogwarts directly?"

"Oh yes," replied Harry "burned half of it to the ground and slaughtered most of the students and staff. He and his followers certainly seemed to enjoy it, though they didn't seem to laugh quite so much when it was their blood that was dripping from the walls."

She goggled at him "You killed them?"

Harry answered her question with a question of his own "Have you ever seen a first year Hufflepuff take a bludgeoning curse to the face and then heard the one who cast the spell laugh about it?"

"No," she replied in all honestly. As a teacher at a school of magic, she had of course seen more than her fair share of magical mishaps and maladies, but never something like that.

"I have," replied Harry "All she wanted to do was to get home to her mummy and a Death Eater murdered her, just because she was there. When you see something like that, suddenly you don't care about stunning or disarming."

"The mark of a good person is restraint," said McGonagall.

"Showing restraint is a lot like innocence, Professor," said Harry "a very good thing, so long as you and those around you can afford it, of course."

Seeing that she looked slightly sick, he decided to change the topic by asking "Was there anything else?"

Quickly she pulled herself together and replied "Yes, there is one other thing. Several important members of the Order of the Phoenix along with a few people from the Ministry will be taking part in a meeting in the Great Hall at six-thirty this evening, during which dinner will be served. Your attendance is required."

"Very well, I will be there," said Harry "Any news on the preparations of my quarters?"

"I shall ask and inform you at dinner," replied McGonagall.

"Thank you," said Harry "Until dinner then."

The Professor turned and left the library.

Harry did not go back to his reading right away. His conversation with McGonagall had given him pause for thought. In all honesty he did not really want to fight against Voldemort again, and he had no real reason to do so in this one. But seeing McGonagall alive again, and Lupin earlier, it made him think. Although the killing curses, severing charms and piercing hexes undoubtedly shared a good portion of the blame, along with those who had cast them, in his opinion one of the biggest influences on the high death toll suffered in his world during the war against Voldemort was Dumbledore and his staunch belief that everyone could be saved, that everyone deserved a second, third or even tenth chance, no matter how evil their deeds or how many lives would be lost in the process.

As much as Harry really did not wish to fight this war, a small part of him thought that perhaps he did not have to. He could always charge right into the battle and kick some Death Eater arse, which he strongly suspected he would do should the time come, but ultimately he could do more good behind the scenes.

Both Lupin and McGonagall had been horrified to learn that he had killed Death Eaters in his world, but both now knew why, even if they did not like his reasons. But maybe, just maybe, if he told enough stories about the horrors he had witnessed to enough people, then they might just listen to them and think on them and learn from them.

There were times in life when you had to show restraint, but in the middle of a wizarding battle, in which the enemy was killing the innocent just for the sport of it was not one of those times.

The followers of Dumbledore needed to wake up to that fact, and soon.

* * *

At quarter past six, Harry put his books back onto the shelves of the library and then headed off towards the Great Hall.

He was just admiring a few of the portraits that adorned the walls of the many corridors of Hogwarts castle, noting as he did so that some were different to what had been found in his own world, when a most peculiar thing happened.

A jar of ink flew down the length of the corridor, whizzed by his left ear and smashed into the helmet of a suit of armour behind him.

In an instant his wand was out and he called out "_Spiritus revelio!"_

A barely visible pulse wave of magic, stretching from wall to wall and from ceiling to floor shot down the length of the corridor. As it passed through the invisible poltergeist, the creature was both revealed and stupefied.

Harry approached it and conjured up a thick rope which he allowed to wind around the poltergeist's arms several times before taking a firm hold of the other end. He then used a spell to awaken the creature.

As its eyes began to open Harry said "Don't bother fighting. That rope is specially designed to restrain you."

The poltergeist looked around blearily for a few moments before its eyes settled on Harry.

Seeing that he had the thing's attention, Harry asked "What is your name, poltergeist?"

Sensing something very powerful and dangerous about this person, the poltergeist decided that it would probably be in his best interest to answer honestly.

"I am Peeves, sir."

"Interesting," said Harry "In my world, you were female."

"In your world?" asked Peeves, not fully comprehending.

"Yes. Now then, what to do with a troublesome poltergeist that needs to learn to never again use me for target practice…?"

"Peeves is sorry sir," said the poltergeist "Peeves knows never again to try and hurt you. Don't punish poor ickle Peevesy!"

Harry shook his head and said "Now, now Peeves. I did not become the leader of an army and the vanquisher of a Dark Lord by taking a poltergeist at his word. It is, after all, in your very nature to forget mild threats. I need something that will stick in your mind."

With that he turned and headed off down the corridor once again, his hold on the rope ensuring that Peeves bobbed along behind him like some kind 0of insane balloon.

A short way along the corridor he opened a small wooden door and, to his delight, he found a narrow set of stairs that spiralled upwards. He took the stairs two at a time and eventually came upon a small, circular room what contained nothing more than a few small windows that looked out over the grounds. Harry made his way over to one of these windows and pushed it open.

He leaned out of this window and used his wand to send the rope holding Peeves shooting towards the top of the small tower that they were in. There the rope wound itself a balustrade and tied itself into a very secure knot.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Peeves, sounding scared.

Harry did not answer. Instead he conjured a large and heavy looking stone and another length of rope. One end of the rope wound itself securely around the stone as the other end tired itself around Peeves' ankles.

He then cast a levitation charm at the rock and guided it out of the window before cancelling the charm. Naturally the weight of the rock pulled hard on the rope and will a yelp Peeves and yanked out through the open window.

Harry leaned out of the window and looked down at Peeves, who was dangling about six feet below him, and he called out "Now you stay there and think about all the trouble you have caused. I will let you back in when I think you have been out there long enough."

A morose "Yes, sir," was all that Peeves offered in reply.

Looking towards the horizon, Harry saw dark clouds gathering. "Huh, looks like it might rain later," he commented before pulling the windows shut.

As a spectral being, hanging there like that for a few hours would neither kill Peeves nor do him much physical harm. Hopefully it would make him think though.

He walked back down the narrow spiralling staircase and came back out in the corridor below. There he was greeted by a familiar pair of blank, staring eyes. The ghost gave him a slight nod before turning and drifting through the wall on the opposite side.

"So the Bloody Baroness gets a gender change between my world and this one as well," Harry mused aloud as he resumed his trek towards the Great Hall. He wondered if Nearly Headless Nicola and Rowland Ravenclaw, the Grey Lad, would be the same.

Harry got to the Great Hall with little further fuss and found the large wooden doors to be shut. Well he was running a couple of minutes late, what with his little run in with Peeves.

He pushed against the doors and they swung open.

As Harry stepped into the Hall, around twenty pairs of eyes turned to look at him, and one man in particular caught his attention, something that instantly resulted in him reaching for his wand.

* * *

"Mr Potter appears to be running late," said Dumbledore to those gathered in the Great Hall.

The house tables and the staff table had been pushed together and the people meeting there were sitting around it.

"He's just reached the top of the marble staircase as we speak," growled Moody, his magical eye turned swivelled around to gaze through the wall in that direction.

Dumbledore gave a nod of acknowledgement before speaking to the room at large "Remember everyone, our main objective here is to impress upon Mr Potter that we are taking this war seriously, and that we can and will aid him as need must."

There was a murmur of agreement as the doors to the Great Hall opened.

It was only the quick reactions of Alastor Moody that saved the life of Severus Snape.

The purple orb left the tip of Harry's wand and rocketed through the air towards Snape before smashing into Moody's hastily cast shield charm with enough force that even those sitting thirty feet away from the impact felt the wind-like backlash.

Harry did not stop there however, and Dumbledore found himself and others having to draw their own wands and shield against the spells that were being rained down upon Snape's person.

Dumbledore was convinced that the lad would tire himself out soon enough, but it quickly became apparent that such an assumption was wrong. Noticing a blue glow around Harry's wand, which indicated the impending use of the so-called "siege-engine curse" Dumbledore quickly changed from a shield charm to a disarming spell.

His spell made contact with Harry but the wand barely even twitched in his hand, far less be blasted out of his grip and sent to the opposite side of the room. It did, however, give Harry pause for the briefest moment, just long enough to Dumbledore to stand up and demand "What do you think you are doing, Mr Potter?"

"Saving lives!" Harry snapped back in reply before preparing to cast another spell.

"By killing Snape?" asked McGonagall.

"By killing a Death Eater!" retorted Harry "A dirty, lying bastard of a man, loyal only to himself."

"Harry, I can assure you that Professor Snape is most certainly not a Death Eater," said Dumbledore.

"That's what you liked to insist in my world as well," said Harry "I even got a full lecture on it a mere two hours before he murdered you for his true master, right before my eyes."

His words gave them all pause, and both of Moody's eyes locked directly on to Snape, who looked very pale all of a sudden.

The heavily scarred man pocketed his wand and said "Never trusted him. As you were, Potter."

Harry gave a brief nod and aimed his wand, only for Dumbledore to shout out frantically "No one will be killing anyone here!"

In a calmer tone he then addressed Harry "Harry, despite what may have happened in your world, I can assure you that Severus Snape is very much on our side and is working exceptionally hard in his role as a spy within Voldemort's ranks for the benefit of all those who stand against the Dark Lord."

Harry slowly drew in a deep breath and then blew it out again before giving a shrug and commenting "Your funeral, Dumbledore. I will not trust him, but I will not kill him without due cause. I just hope that no one dies as a result of this."

He then turned his eyes back to the potions master "Fair warning though, Snape. I made sure you squealed like a stuck pig as I killed you in my world, and I'd be more than happy to do so again should the need arise. Now then, where am I sitting?"

As a pale Snape tried to regain his composure, Moody, who was sitting next to him, pulled out the seat between himself and Remus Lupin.

Harry was pleased to see that Snape did not look in the least bit comfortable with only Moody separating them, even with Dumbledore seated on Snape's other side.

Harry sat himself down and smiled at those gathered around him. Their expressions ranged from outright terrified to slightly nervous-yet-rather impressed.

"So," said Harry brightly "what are we talking about?"

But just then the meeting was interrupted once again, this time by the School Caretaker bursting into the hall.

"Peeves," the man bellowed. Well, as well as one can bellow when they are out of breath.

"I'm sorry, who?" asked Dumbledore.

"Peeves, headmaster, Peeves the poltergeist."

"Oh yes," said Dumbledore wearily "Well, what has he done this time?"

"He's hanging from the tower that stands over the Herbology greenhouses."

"Now why would he be there?"

"I put him there," said Harry, trying to be helpful.

Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose and asked "And why did you put him there?"

"He threw a bottle of ink at me," replied Harry "You have to take a hard stance against a poltergeist, you know? Smack them down early enough and they will know the boundaries and come to respect you and prove to be a great asset. Of course, the longer you allow them free reign to do whatever they want, the more heavy handed you have to be with them in order to get them to behave."

Dumbledore sighed heavily before addressing the caretaker "Mr Filch, you have my permission to set Peeves free."

"Actually, he can't," said Harry "The ropes I used to tie him there can only be undone by me."

Again Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose before saying "Very well, Mr Potter could you kindly go with Mr Filch in order to set free our resident poltergeist."

"I could." replied Harry, but then made no effort to get up and move.

Everyone in the room was watching this with eager eyes. A woman with purple hair and a man with a dragon-tooth earring in particular seemed to be enjoying it.

Realising what had happened, Dumbledore asked "Mr Potter, would you go with Mr Filch to free Peeves?"

"Could I, would I and should I are all very different questions, Dumbledore," said Harry.

"Well?" asked the aged wizard.

"Yes, no and no." replied Harry.

"What?"

"Yes I could, no I won't and no I should not," elaborated Harry "I _could_ go and free Peeves before he learns his lesson properly, but I _would_ not because I don't want to deprive him of the chance to learn his lesson, and nor _should_ I deprive him of said chance."

"Fine," said Dumbledore "Mr Filch, Peeves will stay where he is until Mr Potter can be convinced to free him. Now please leave as we are about to have an important meeting."

Filch nodded and left the hall, shutting the doors behind him.

"I'm almost certain that our caretaker was called Miss Flinch and had breasts," Harry mused aloud so that everyone at the table heard him "Everything else about the caretaker is exactly the same, however."

Several people shuddered at the metal image brought up by his words.

Rufus Scrimgeour cleared his throat awkwardly and said "Yes, well… erm… perhaps we should get on with our meeting?"

"Right," said Dumbledore, who privately was wondering how on Earth he was meant to keep a straight face the next time he had one of his fortnightly meetings with Mr Filch.

"To get straight to the point, Mr Potter," said Scrimgeour "the primary purpose for this meeting is to apprise you of how things currently stand, and what efforts we are making to win the war that we find ourselves in."

"You mean other than kidnapping me from my home universe and placing most of your hopes upon me largely ending it for you?" asked Harry in an innocent tone which he had perfected by mimicking Luna.

Scrimgeour was instantly flustered, and upon noticing this Amelia Bones swiftly took over "Blunt but correct, Mr Potter."

"Good," said Harry "Mr Lupin here mentioned earlier that several Death Eaters were captured a few weeks ago as they attempted to raid the Department of Mysteries. I assume that they were all pumped with so much truth potion that they had it coming out of their pores and then questioned about anything and everything that could even be remotely attributed to them and their ilk before being pushed through the veil of death?"

"Er, no." said Madam Bones.

Harry heaved a weary sigh "Of course not. Are they at least imprisoned in the catacombs beneath the Ministry, shackled by magic inhibitors and under the guard of a legion of security trolls who are further assisted by the presence of a series of elaborate and most likely to be fatal booby traps?"

"No, they are in Azkaban," said Scrimgeour, who had recomposed himself "under the guard of the Dementors."

Harry groaned and let his head fall forwards onto the table, hitting it with a dull thud.

"I take it this news isn't to your liking?" growled Moody.

"The Dementors will join with Voldemort the moment he asks, if they haven't already," said Harry.

"The Ministry is more than capable of maintaining the loyalty of its Dementors," said Scrimgeour, defensively.

"It really isn't," replied Harry, lifting his head up again to look at the man "Think of it this way – let's say that you are a Dementor in the service of the Ministry. Day after day you drift lazily along the cold, dark and dank corridors of Azkaban prison, sucking the joy from people who mostly have not felt such emotions in years, occasionally getting a top up from a random newcomer, or maybe even the odd soul or two. Then you get the offer to leave the island to wander about on the mainland, a place where you can drift by a playground filled with muggle children, where you can dine on the happiness in the air until you are stuffed, with no-one there able to see you and drive you off, a place where you can sneak up on a lone wizard or muggle and suck out their soul, just because you want to. Which option is the most appealing?"

Scrimgeour and Bones exchanged a look before she replied "We'll look into relocating Azkaban's prisoners and dealing with the Dementors as soon as possible."

"If you could find a deep and dark place that can be sealed off with little hope of them ever escaping or of them being found by their master, that would be best." said Harry.

"Are you talking about the prisoners or the Dementors?" asked Lupin.

"Why one over the other?" asked Harry in response, before turning back to Madam Bones "Be sure to drag every last little piece of information out of the prisoners that you can though."

"There was something that I wanted to bring up," said Harry "how well outfitted are the Aurors in terms of armour?"

"Our Aurors don't use armour," said Madam Bones "Few wizards have since the middle ages."

"Not that clunky metal stuff that Godric Gryffindor used to wear," said Harry "I mean actual clothes which also give protection."

"How do you mean?" asked Lupin.

"Like this," said Harry, and he stood up, untied his robes and let them fall to the floor. He then unbuttoned his scarlet coloured shirt and allowed them to see what was beneath.

"A protective shirt," said Harry "made of Basilisk skin. It extends down to my elbows, and a pair of protective trousers made of the same stuff protects me from my hips down to my ankles."

He turned to the wizard sitting next to him "Moody, your best cutting curse, if you please?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to protest, but Moody had already drawn his wand and fired the curse.

Several people gasped in shock, but Harry remained standing.

Moody gaped at him "That should have sliced into you like a warm knife through butter!"

"And yet the vest is barely scratched," said Harry "Of course, it would not stop a killing curse, but get hit by a stunning spell, a cutting curse, a piercing hex or a bombardment spell and you'll be fine, though if the one who casts the bombardment spell is powerful enough you might feel a tiny bit of air pushed out of your lungs, which is better than having them mangled as your ribcage explodes no matter which way you look at it."

"Amelia, get everyone you can onto trying to source this stuff," said Scrimgeour "I couldn't give a shit what it costs, just get your entire Auror corps fitted out in it, and your regular Law Enforcement officers, if you can find enough."

Harry turned to Dumbledore and asked "Wasn't a Basilisk found and killed beneath this very castle just a couple of years ago, Dumbledore? It was in my world."

"It was," replied Dumbledore "I trust that you have the ability to gain entrance?"

"I certainly do," said Harry, before adding thoughtfully "You know, it's such a shame that my world's version of Lavender Brown isn't here. She was primarily a warrior, but she was great and making our armour clothing."

"Wait, hold on there," said one of the Weasley twins "did you just say that Lavender Brown became a warrior in your world?"

"One of the best," said Harry "It's amazing what happens to people whose families are torn from them right before their eyes... and torn apart, for that matter."

Several people blanched at the implication.

"Speaking of your allies from your world," said Dumbledore as he pulled out a stack of parchment "I have here the notes on the summoning ritual that you requested. It will require you to obtain samples from the people that you wish to summon. A hair form each would suffice."

From her position further down the table, Molly Weasley piped up "I'll see about getting some hair from Ron and Ginny for you dear."

Harry looked at her, an expression of complete bafflement on his face as he asked "Why?"

Molly's usually cheerful expression fell and she asked "We they not a part of your army?"

"No," said Harry "Well, Ron was at one point but he chickened out when we got lethal. Shame really, he could have used a few lethal spells at his disposal when the Death Eaters burned down The Burrow with him inside."

Molly blanched at that before asking, even though she dreaded the answer "And Ginny?"

"Never got the chance to join," said Harry "I don't know what kind of bullshit Lucius Malfoy managed to pull, but he managed to get Ginny expelled from Hogwarts after the entire Chamber of Secrets incident. She went to Beauxbatons in France after that, though she was home when the Death Eaters attacked The Burrow. She died as well."

"Where was the Order during the attack?" asked Arthur from his seat next to his wife, who now had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Most of the Order was dead," said Harry "Once Snapey here offed Dumbledore, Voldemort stepped up his game. Of those Order members sitting around this table, only five were alive when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, and only one survived the battle, though he died less than a month later."

"And the Aurors?" asked Madam Bones.

"Well by this point in the timeline, you were dead," said Harry.

"I must not have escaped that assassination attempt I experienced a few weeks ago," said Madam Bones.

Harry nodded and continued "About a month after Dumbledore was killed, Scrimgeour too was assassinated. By that time Voldemort had a good few followers in high ranking positions at the Ministry, and a few others under the imperius curse. After that, the Ministry pretty much rolled over and allowed evil to take over. Death Eaters and Snatchers were employed to round up all the mudbloods, and the Aurors were soon helping them. Those who did not were either put into Azkaban or, like Tonks and Kingsley over there, went into hiding."

Madam Bones had gone as white as Snape had been following Harry's attack "Aurors were _helping _the Death Eaters?"

"Yup," replied Harry "No imperius or anything, just a few mild threats and off they went, doing the bidding of Voldemort and his minions. They even came with them to Hogwarts. Of course, a good few of them had to be killed before the battle was won, and even more were put down as we fought to take back the Ministry. Those who survived were arrested and put on trial for High Treason. I don't think that any of the Aurors who are currently serving in this world are still alive in mine."

Silence lingered in the air until, at length, Dumbledore spoke "Yes, well… You have given us much to think on Harry. But I think that this meeting should end for now."

"I thought you wanted to tell me how well you were doing in the war effort," said Harry, puzzled.

"Oh, I think we've covered pretty much everything…" said Dumbledore.

"What, that you've got prisoners who you've barely questioned, you still have the Dementors wandering free and the Aurors don't have proper armour?" asked Harry "There must be more to discuss than that?"

The air was silent again, and it was Scrimgeour who broke it this time "To be honest our biggest development in the war during the past few weeks has been summoning you."

"Well isn't that just super?" asked Harry, sarcastically before rounding on Snape and demanding "What about you? Any news on your other master that you feel like sharing?"

Still not quite over the shock of nearly being killed by a Potter earlier, Snape said nothing, instead merely offering a shake of the head in reply.

"Thought not," said Harry. He turned to Madam Bones "If you could get hair from your niece and her friend Hannah, that would be a good place to start, given how Susan is just about the best warrior I had on my side and Hannah is a healer capable of outshining most of the staff at St Mungo's. In addition, I'd like samples from Lavender Brown, Neville Longbottom, Terry Boot, Cho Chang, Ernie Macmillan, Parvati and Padma Patil, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Katie Bell, Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger."

"That's your army?" asked Tonks, surprised that there were so few names.

"They're the ones I am choosing to start with," said Harry.

And with that he gathered up the stack of notes given to him by Dumbledore, got up from his seat and marched from the room, all the while muttering under his breath words that they could barely discern, but still did not sound all that flattering.

"Well…" said Dumbledore "that went worse than I was hoping."

"It went about as well as could be expected," growled Moody before he too got up and stomped out of the hall.

* * *

**A/N: So there it is, Chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if you did. In case you haven't realised it yet, things in Harry's universe went waaaaay worse than they did in canon, though this is due in some part to the fact that in spite of how bad things seemed to be in canon, most people who were ever named appeared to survive. The movies certainly seemed to emphasise this. Also, things didn't just magically go back to normal the moment Voldemort bit the dust, which is another thing that always seemed strange to me.**


	5. Many Meetings

**Right, here we go with the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Harry from Another World**

Chapter 3: Many Meetings

After leaving the meeting in the Great Hall, Moody stomped off in search of Harry. He found him sitting in the library once again, now preparing to go over the notes that would allow him to summon his army.

"Don't take their attitudes to heart, Potter," he growled "They'll wake up to the truth soon enough."

"Oh I know that they will," replied Harry, without looking up "Unfortunately I know from experience that their individual moments of epiphany are likely to either coincide with their holding of their own intestines, or happen when the green flash of the killing curse is about an inch in front of their eyes."

"And at what point, then, did you have your epiphany?" asked Moody as he pulled out a chair to sit down on.

"Hard to say really; it was around the end of my first year at Hogwarts that I really began to suspect that Dumbledore was not the great man he was supposed to be, and the point was really hammered home at the end of my third year. Though I can't say that it was a shock to the system; the hype surrounding Dumbledore might have enthralled others, but it made me wary of him, so I was never quite so… _enamoured_ with him as others tend to be."

"So his fame made you wary of him?"

"No, it was the hype. I knew why he was famous; he defeated a dark warlord in a duel, and that did not make me wary of him. What made me wary of him was the fact that on the back of his victory he was awarded three key positions of power, one at Hogwarts, one with the Wizengamot and one with the International Confederation of Wizards. And it didn't take long to see what a poor state those three administrations were in."

"You do know that his positions within the Wizengamot and the I.C.W are mostly ceremonial, don't you?"

"I figured it out after a while," said Harry "it became blindingly obvious that neither of those positions actually meant anything when he was unable to use either to our advantage in the war. Well, it was either the positions were useless or he was."

"So you feel that Dumbledore wasn't able to do enough?"

"He wasn't inclined to do enough," said Harry "when he died all his hopes seemed to be based on the idea that I'd somehow finish of Voldemort and then all his followers would turn into productive members of society."

"Well, if that's your opinion of Dumbledore, then I'm not sure I want to know your opinion on the Ministry," said Moody.

"The Ministry is comprised of about half a dozen competent individuals who are to be found at random in amongst a cavalcade of blustering buffoons and pompous pricks who only got where they are today because of who their daddy was. Keep in mind that their daddy only matters because of who his daddy was, who matters because of who his daddy was, who – well, you get the picture."

"So you believe that the Ministry is mostly made up of incompetent idiots?"

"Mostly. Always remember, though, that you should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers."

"So bottom line, you don't trust the Order or the Ministry?"

"In my world? No. In this world, even less."

"I'm sure they'll like that."

"I couldn't care less what they like. I'm here to do a job that they're either too afraid or too incompetent to do themselves and then get the hell out of here as quickly as possible."

"Right,"

"Mad Eye, you were one of the few order members that I actually liked, but I'm going to give you a bit of advice. If ever anyone ever suggests a plan involving the use of Polyjuice potion to make about half the Order look like me, I want to kill them where they stand."

"Why?" the battle-worn Auror asked cautiously.

"Because in my world you heard such a plan and insisted on carrying it out. The Order lost Arthur, Fred, George, Kingsley and you that night, as well as the last droplet of respect I had for any of them. Hermione and Fleur were also taken prisoner and Tonks lost her wand arm. Oh, and Mundungus died too, but that was later."

"Of his injuries?" asked Moody.

"No, it was his plan, and he fled halfway through. He saw me coming for him and turned his wand on himself rather than find out what I had in store for him."

"Okay then…"

"Just bear in mind, Mad-Eye, Dumbledore will happily betray the innocent in the hopes of forgiving the guilty."

* * *

After Moody had left, Harry spent another hour or so studying the notes that had been provided for him before going off in search of McGonagall. He had left the meeting without asking her if she had discovered where his quarters were to be.

He found her in her office and she gladly led him to the disused area of the castle where he would be staying.

"Unfortunately the House Elves have not been able to incorporate the duelling room, gymnasium, potions laboratory or the, uh, hot-tub, as you called it, just yet," said McGonagall "But you should find that you have a fully-furnished bedroom, lounge area, bathroom and study, as well as a small, private kitchen should you wish to eat in private."

"Thank you," said Harry "I trust that the bedroom has a king-sized bed?"

"The finest we could locate in the castle," replied McGonagall.

"Excellent. Oh, and just a word of warning, when I do manage to summon my army, they'll need private quarters too. We can share the lounge area, lab, training room and gymnasium of course."

"Of course," said McGonagall, weakly "Well, just inform this suit of armour here what you wish your password to be and then you're all set to go."

"Thank you," said Harry again before waiting for her to leave.

Once she was well out of earshot, he turned to the suit of armour and said "The password is to be "_The Resistance"_."

The suit of armour nodded and moved aside, leaving the way clear for Harry to enter through the door behind.

The quarters were nice enough, and furnished just as McGonagall had said they would be, but Harry didn't dwell too much on that. More important to him was checking everything, from the ceiling to the floor, every piece of furniture and every utensil, every nook and every cranny for any kind of spell, charm, ward or enchantment that could be used to monitor his rooms and dispelling them immediately.

Two hundred and six dispellings later Harry had gotten them all and decided that it was time to turn in for the night.

He made his way into the bathroom where he used the loo before taking a long and refreshing shower, and then brushed his teeth. In the bedroom he opened up a chest of drawers and changed into a fresh pair of pyjama trousers and a white t-shirt.

He knew that it wasn't particularly manly to sleep in anything more than just a pair of boxer shorts, but Harry didn't care. If ever he slept in just his boxer shorts, then he would have a dream featuring himself in a very public place wearing only his boxer shorts. And if he slept naked, then he had the same type of dream, only he was naked. And he had enough nightmares to be going on with without adding public nudity to the list.

Harry walked around the bed to get in on what he considered to be "his" side of the bed. He got in under the bed covers and shifted into a comfortable position before stretching out his left arm without even thinking about it.

He paused, knowing that something was wrong. He looked at his outstretched arm and frowned before a feeling of loss settled in his stomach. He had stretched out his arm so that Hermione could cuddle up next to him and he could wrap that arm around her, just like they had been doing for several years.

But Hermione wasn't there with him now. For the first time since they had rescued her from her imprisonment in the basement of Malfoy Manor, Hermione was not there to cuddle up to him at night.

Harry brought his arm down to his side and laid there on his back with no one next to him. It felt incredibly uncomfortable.

And so very wrong.

He hoped that he would not be alone long enough to get used to it.

He shifted about in an attempt to get more comfortable, but his efforts were in vain.

He tried clearing his mind in an effort to fall asleep, but he kept thinking back on his meeting with Moody. Some might have questioned why he had revealed so much to the man, but his reasoning was quite sound.

He knew that Moody was likely to report what was said to Dumbledore, or at least a few snippets of what was said. And what Harry had said about Dumbledore could cause one of two things; either Dumbledore get the hint, pull his finger out and actually take some productive action in the war, or he would, like the Ministry, take the path of being seen to be doing something through the use of empty platitudes and supplying information that was actually less than half as useful than it appeared to be to one who did not know what to look for.

Of the two scenarios, Harry suspected that Dumbledore would choose to do the latter, which actually suited Harry just fine as he could hopefully use empty words from Dumbledore to turn people away from the man.

Of course, Dumbledore becoming competent could also be useful.

This was all conjecture of course, as Harry had no real intention of sticking around for longer than necessary. With any luck he could find out how to get home, grab the gold they offered him and get the hell out of here before he had to get his hands dirty.

Still, he couldn't help but want to help out just a little bit, even if only to give the so-called "light side" a bit of a wake-up call.

Of course, if any of the Death Eaters decided to get too close, he would deal with them as necessary. He had, after all, been looking forward to killing Lucius Malfoy in his world, only for Neville to get there first. He didn't begrudge Neville the kill of course, but Harry had wanted the satisfaction of watching the man die by his hand.

Well, maybe in this universe…

And with that pleasant thought, he finally fell to sleep.

* * *

The following morning, after waking up cold and alone, Harry made himself a cup of tea and a few slices of toast in his kitchen area before settling in to try and make some sense out of the ritual notes that Dumbledore had handed to him the day before.

Really he ought to wrangle the Order and the Ministry into performing the summoning ritual for him, but he just didn't trust them. Dumbledore did not like the idea of Harry bringing his army over, and the expression on the old man's face every time the subject was brought up confirmed this. Harry would not put it past the old man to deliberately muck up the ritual somehow and then insist that it no longer worked.

Of course, there was also the possibility that the notes that Harry had been given were wrong, either deliberately incomplete or altered, but Harry would cross that bridge when he came to it.

He was just finishing his second slice of toast when the sound of someone clearing their throat caught his attention.

The night before he had noticed a portrait frame hanging on the wall that appeared to show nothing but a blank canvas. Now though it contained a little, grey-haired old witch who was looking down at him.

"You have some visitors," she announced before vacating the frame and leaving it blank again.

Harry drew his wand and approached the door, all the while wondering if the "guests" would be reporting to Dumbledore or to the Ministry.

He opened the door and found himself face to face with a group of seven people. First was Neville Longbottom, his physical appearance revealing that he was the one from this world rather than Harry's own. Standing behind him was his grandmother, Augusta Longbottom. Next to Neville was Hannah Abbott, who was next to Susan Bones. Susan's aunt, Amelia Bones was standing behind them with Professor McGonagall next to her.

And standing in front of McGonagall was someone who was sporting the all-too familiar bushy brown hair of Hermione Granger. Luna Lovegood stood next to her, her protuberant eyes giving only the slightest indication of surprise at seeing him.

His attention was fixed mostly on Hermione however. She looked exactly as he remembered her being at that age, exactly as she was before the effects of the war truly began to kick in.

They all did.

"Um… hello?" he eloquently half greeted and half asked.

"Good morning, Harry," said McGonagall "may we come in?"

Too dumbstruck to think of a reason to refuse them entry, Harry nodded and stepped back, opening the door wider to allow them access.

"Sorry to interrupt your research, Mr Potter," said Madam Bones "But after our meeting yesterday I decided to get a start on collecting the hair samples you required. I contacted Madam Longbottom here regarding her grandson, and asked Professor McGonagall to venture over to The Burrow to see about getting a sample from Hermione before turning to my own niece. Clearly each of these youngsters has learned well from this world's version of you, for they all insisted that they meet you before giving over any samples."

Finally finding his voice, Harry replied "Okay. Um, I assume that Hannah would have been visiting your niece and Luna was visiting The Burrow?"

"That's correct, yes," replied Madam Bones.

"Right," said Harry, before directing his attention unto the younger versions of five of his closest friends "Well, what would you like to know?"

Hermione answered for the group "Well, the main question is why you want hair samples from each of us."

Harry didn't immediately answer, but just stared at her. She quickly grew uncomfortable under his gaze and it showed. Realising what he was doing, Harry shook his head and apologised "I'm sorry. It's just that it's been a long time since I've seen my world's Hermione do that."

"Do what?" asked Hermione, sounding cautious.

"Talk," replied Harry.

"She can't talk?"

"No. Well, she can, but not with her mouth. She had to learn to communicate telepathically."

Around the room, several pairs of eyes widened in surprise.

"Telepathy?" asked Madam Longbottom "That's a very obscure and difficult to learn branch of magic."

Harry shrugged and replied "I know, but she had to learn it in order to communicate."

"Why?" asked Neville.

It was Harry's turn to look uncomfortable. He might have been free with detailing the shocking truths of war to the adults, but those standing in front of him now were only fifteen, fourteen in Luna's case.

Finally he sighed and said, more to himself than the others "Well, I suppose you'll end up finding out sooner or later," before addressing them all directly "In my world Hermione was captured by the Death Eaters and kept a prisoner for several months. I won't reveal the full extent of what she went through, but I will say that at some point Bellatrix Lestrange got bored of Hermione's pleas for release, and you know Bellatrix – a simple silencing charm would never satisfy her."

Hermione gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth, an action which partially muffled her next words "She didn't?"

Harry nodded solemnly and replied "I'm afraid she did. We eventually managed to rescue her, but as yet no branch of magic that we have delved into has offered up a way to grow back what Bellatrix removed."

Susan shuddered and commented "Well, I hope someone put that bitch down for good."

At that Harry grinned and replied "Actually someone did. It was my world's version of you, in fact."

Susan's eyes bugged out "Me?"

"Oh yes. You see, during the course of the war you, or my world's version of you, procured a rather hefty siege hammer, and you got quite good at wielding it. My world's version of Hannah, here, became a proficient healer and, during the final battle it was her job to scurry around the battlefield under as many protective enchantments as possible in order to tend to the wounded. At one point dear old Bellatrix spotted her and cast the cruciatus curse on her. She was so busy taking delight that she completely failed to notice Susan crash through Jugson and Yaxley in order to reach her. The end result was as grizzly as it was impressive."

Neville looked uncomfortable and asked "So that means I didn't get to avenge my parents then?"

"Not at all," said Harry "You got both Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, I'd call that avenging them." He chuckled fondly and added "Though I will admit, you were a bit pissed at getting the whole set. You handled your disappointment well though. You thanked Susan for finished Bellatrix, snogged Hannah and proclaimed your love for her, and then went off and took your frustrations out of Lucius Malfoy."

Neville and Hannah both went bright red "We're together in your world?" Hannah squeaked out.

"Yup," replied Harry "happily married. I officiated."

The duo exchanged a look before turning their eyes away from each other, their faces burning even brighter as Susan broke down into a fit of giggles at her friend's expense.

Harry smiled at them before suddenly remembering something. He turned to the adults "I've just recalled something concerning Hannah. This lot, except for Luna, are just about to start their sixth year at Hogwarts, correct?"

"Yes, that's right," said McGonagall.

"Well, in my world, shortly after the school year began, Hannah's house was attacked by Death Eaters. Her dad wasn't home at the time, but her mother was."

"What?" asked Hannah in a weak voice as her face turned from a blushing red to an almost deathly white.

Madam Bones nodded and said "Very well, we'll move the whole family out of there."

"Make sure to have a few capable people keeping an eye on the place," said Harry "With any luck, you'll be able to turn their planned ambush into a trap."

Madam Bones gave another nod of agreement.

Harry turned back to the group of youngsters and smiled reassuringly "Don't worry Hannah, we'll keep your mum safe. That's why I was brought here, to help keep people safe.

A worried looking Hannah gave a shaky smile and nodded her head in acceptance.

"You know," said Luna suddenly "you still haven't answered our original question."

"Haven't I?" asked Harry "Okay, well the reason I need some hair samples from each of you, and others, is that I am planning on performing the summoning ritual that brought me here again in order to bring my army over. Each of you was in that army, in some way or another."

Luna's eyes were downcast as she said "I don't expect I was much good at fighting. I wasn't at the Ministry."

"You don't have to be a fighter to be a part of an army, Luna," said Harry "The Luna from my world was trained to fight so that she could do so if and when she needed to. She was also a good researcher, coming up with new ways and means for us to be an effective team. Mostly, though, she liked taking care of the animals."

"You had animals?" asked Luna.

"Yes," said Harry "Many kinds."

Luna's eyes seemed to shine at the thought.

"And me?" asked Hermione "What was I?"

"Chief researcher," replied Harry "Finding the as many ways and means as possible to keep me and others alive was all the drive you needed. I usually had to go and find you, and carry you away from your research in order to make sure that you went to sleep."

Neville chuckled and commented "I can't imagine that going down to well."

Harry shrugged and replied "It didn't matter to her so long as she was sleeping in the right place."

Hermione blushed at the implication.

Harry rolled his eyes and said "I'm sure that this world's Harry feels the same, though if he's anything like me, he'll need you to help figure it out."

Hermione smiled sadly and replied "He's not exactly in any kind of state to be concerning himself with such things at the moment."

"Well then, best Hannah give me a hair sample, because the sooner I get my world's version of her over here, the sooner she can get to finding out what's wrong with this world's Harry, and then she can bring him back to being his old self again."

Neville perked up at that "Do you think the something could be done for my parents too?"

"It's a possibility," replied Harry, somewhat evasively.

Neville's face fell, and he asked "Didn't they get healed in your world."

Harry shook his head solemnly, and Neville looked down at his own feet.

"Don't look so down Neville," said Hannah "Just because they didn't get the chance to do it in their world, doesn't mean that they won't do it in this one, right?" She addressed the last part to Harry.

He nodded and replied "We'll do our best to bring them back, Neville."

The boy nodded in thanks, obviously holding back a few tears.

"Right," said McGonagall "I believe you five have taken up enough of Mr Potter's time today. If you could all please give him a sample of your hair, so that he might carry on with his research and that we can get you home."

Each of the five took out their wands and pulled on a lock of hair, which they then used severing charms to cut away from the rest. Each placed their selected lock onto the table, but Harry goodbye and then headed towards the door.

Madam Bones informed him that she would see about getting samples from the others he had named, and assured him that she would be making arrangements for the Abbott family as soon as she got back to the Ministry.

Harry thanked her and watched her leave with Professor McGonagall and Madam Longbottom.

He closed the door behind them and slumped wearily against it. He could not believe how emotionally draining that had been.

It seemed that it was one thing to discuss the horrors of battle with the adults who had failed to fight the war in his world effectively and quite another to discuss it with the younger and innocent versions of those who had fought alongside him for years.

He returned to the table and picked up the cup of tea that he had made for himself earlier, only to find that it had gone cold.

He considered heating it up again with a warming charm, but in the end he decided to just tip it down the sink.

He needed something a little bit stronger, anyway.

* * *

**A/N: So, how was that? Delved a bit more into Harry's true psyche here rather than what he just puts on in front of the Order and the Ministry. Also got a few slices of what life was like in his world. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**For those of you waiting for the new chapter of my Junior Inquisitor story, I promise you that it is in the works. I've got the chapter written out, but it just needs…well, I don't think "padding" is the best word to use, but I can't think of a better one. It's got all the essentials that the chapter required, but it is far too short, so I need to embellish upon a few points, expand upon the thoughts of characters and so forth to make it a decent length.**

**And I don't know if any of those who read this also read my Pokémon story, but if you do, yes the next chapter of that is on the way too. Please be patient.**


	6. Help Arrives

**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**

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**Harry from Another World**

Chapter 4: Help Arrives

One of the rune stones began to glow with an intensely bright white light. Then there was a slight crunch, a loud _crack!_ and the thing broke in half.

"Fuck it!" cursed Harry Potter, rather loudly. He approached the rune stone and prodded it with the index finger of his right hand. This proved to be a foolish thing to do, as the stone was rather hot and as such Harry received a rather unpleasant burn.

"Ouch!" he yelped, pulling his hand back and shoving his finger into his mouth, curing "Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks!"

This was his fifth attempt in the last two weeks to summon his army to him and it just wasn't working. If he kept this up much longer, he was going to have to ask this worlds' Hannah Abbott for more hair.

Although he was very tempted to summon his beloved Hermione first, or even Susan, his best warrior, in the end he had decided that the best thing to do was to bring his favourite healer over before all the rest, especially when he took into consideration the number of cuts, bruises and burns he seemed to have been inflicting upon himself during the preparations for this ritual.

He was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Dumbledore had not supplied him with the complete notes on the ritual as the man had claimed. There was nothing for it; he was going to have to confront the man.

Harry checked his watch and was disappointed to discover that it was seven thirty in the evening.

Today was the day the students of Hogwarts returned to the castle for a new year of education (or whatever Snape and Trelawney's classes provided – torture maybe). It being seven thirty in the evening meant that the students would all now have arrived in the castle and would just be tucking into the mountain of food that was the welcoming feast, and Dumbledore would be occupied there until nine-thirty.

Well, it was about time for Harry to make another scene in public. He hadn't really done so in several days so it was due.

Harry had been in this universe for three weeks now and still had not succeeded in his attempts to summon his army. Nor, for that matter, had Dumbledore kept his promise to locate a suitable sword for Harry to wield. And absolutely no progress had been made by either the Order or the Ministry in combating Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

All in all, it had been a rather disappointing three weeks.

Harry made his way down to the Great Hall and, without preamble, pushed to two doors wide open and strode in purposefully, demanding in a loud voice "Dumbledore, a word, now!"

The hall went silent. Those who did not know about the new, older Harry goggled at him in shock. Those who did know about him also goggled at him in shock, but that was more to do with his summoning of Dumbledore as though the man was a particularly petulant five year old.

This, Harry thought, was rather unfair on petulant five year olds everywhere.

Dumbledore stood, trying his best to appear gracious rather than irritated at the blatant display of disrespect in front of his students "What can I do for you, Mr Potter?"

"You can give me the correct notes for the ritual you used to summon me," Harry replied "As I've already told you, the sooner I can summon my own people, the sooner this whole mess can be sorted out."

"Harry-" Dumbledore began in a placating tone, but broke off for, in that moment, a most peculiar thing happened.

A bright ball of light, about two feet across, appeared in the middle of the Great Hall, located in the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. In surprise and fear those students closest to it scrambled over the tables, knocking platters of food and jugs of drink flying in all directions.

The ball of light pulsed slightly, sending out what looked light thousands of shards of glass. These shards remained within four feet of the orb of light, giving the entire construct a diameter of ten feet. The closer the shards were to the orb of light the smaller they were, the more numerous they were and the brighter they were illuminated. Further out they grew larger, were positioned further apart, and were less well illuminated, meaning that the largest shards on the outside also appeared relatively transparent.

Harry drew his wand and aimed it. He was disappointed to note that only a handful of the staff, and ever fewer students, had done likewise.

"What the hell is that?" asked Cormac McClaggen, a seventh year Gryffindor who was entirely unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"I am afraid that I do not know," said Dumbledore "Mr Potter, this wouldn't have anything to do with you would it?"

"Not that I'm aware of," said Harry "Though this could be a delayed effect of your little summoning ritual that brought me here."

The strange phenomenon was making a faint humming sound that was only just audible, and the shards had begun to rotate slowly, rather like planets around a sun.

Harry approached the thing and held out a hand. One of the large shards passed right through it.

"Well, the shards aren't made of glass, even if they look that way," he observed loudly.

Suddenly a sound came from the orb of light. It was much more audible than the low hum. The new noise sounded like an owl making a call. It came once, and then again, and then changed. Then the original sound came through, repeated itself, and then changed.

"Sounds like two calls from a barn owl an' one from a screech owl," observed Hagrid.

The process was repeated again, and everyone who knew anything about owls all agreed that there were two calls from a barn owl and one from a screech owl.

And then suddenly Harry understood and he let out a laugh before cupping his hands together in front of his mouth and emitting three calls – two like a barn owl and one like a screech owl.

The sounds were repeated again from the orb of light, though they sounded louder this time. Harry called back again. The sounds were repeated once more, again louder, and Harry called back. Then the call changed completely, this time coming as one long howl like those made by a wolf. Harry changed his call and howled back.

And then something even more surprising happened. Two figured appeared to step out of the orb of light, walked through the shards and came to a stop six feet in front of Harry.

Neither one of the figures was a barn owl. Neither one of the figures was a screech owl. In fact, neither one of them was an owl of any sort. Nor were they a wolf, or a fox, or a jackal or a dog of any sort.

Both were humans, and both were women.

One had shoulder length red hair and was dressed in dark red clothing, over which she wore several pieces of plated armour – a cuirass to protect her torso, vambraces to protect her forearms, greaves to protect her shins and pauldron on each shoulder. To the untrained eye her armour appeared to be made of gold, but was actually made of brass. In her hands she was carrying a very large and very lethal looking siege hammer.

The other had long, light brown hair that grew down to the middle of her back and appeared to be mostly dressed in brown leathers. Across her shoulders was draped a shawl of what appeared to be some kind of grey fur. A similar fur decorated the tops of her boots, which came half way up to her knees. She too was wielding a large and lethal looking weapon, a battle-axe. To be precise, it was a horseman's axe, designed to be used by those mounted on a steed.

"Well, Potter," said the red haired woman "what have you got to say for yourself?"

Harry said nothing in reply. Instead he stepped forwards and pulled both women into a hug which they happily returned.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you two," he said softly.

"Not as good as it is for us to see you," said the brown haired woman "you've had us worried sick about you for the past two years!"

Harry pulled back and looked at them "Two years?" he asked in astonishment "I've only been here three weeks!"

"Well," said the red head "it took us five months to find out what happened to you and the rest of the time we spent trying to find a way to get you back. That you have been here three weeks means that someone was slightly off in their calculations. I'll be having words when we get back. Those three weeks could have meant the difference between life and death for you."

"We can go back through that thing?" asked Harry, gesturing towards the light. After getting two nods in reply he breathed a sigh of relief "Thank Merlin! I've been doing my nut in trying to figure out the method used to summon me here so that I could someone with more brains so they could reverse-engineer the thing in order to take us back. Now I don't-" he broke off.

His attention had been drawn to someone who had come over from the Hufflepuff table to get a closer look at the two newcomers.

Susan Bones stared at the red haired woman for a few moments before announcing "You're me."

The older woman looked the other up and down before replying "I would say so."

Young Susan turned to the other woman and said "And you're Lavender Brown, aren't you?"

"I am," said the brunette as another voice, not too dissimilar cried out in astonishment from another area of the hall "What?"

Having already gotten herself covered in gravy and mashed potatoes when diving over the Gryffindor House table in order to get away from the mysterious orb of light, Lavender climbed back over the table and approached the newcomers as several other students and a fair few members of staff did the same.

The Older Susan and Lavender began looking around as though noticing their audience for the first time. In fact they had been aware of their surroundings the moment they stepped through, their eyes having missed nothing. They could also, like Harry, sense auras and the vast majority of those in the room had been giving off an aura of fear. Not the kind of fear that would make them last out stupidly, but the kind of fear that made them want to curl up into a small ball and hope that the danger passed by without noticing them.

Now most of the auras were giving off varying levels of curiosity.

"Interesting," observed Older Susan "Not only are we in a different reality, we are also in the past."

"Yeah," agreed Harry "You'd think that the ritual they used would have brought through someone of a more appropriate age. Then again their intent may have played a role and so seeing as they wanted someone to finish off Voldemort for them, magic decided to summon someone older who knew what to do."

"Your theory suggests that magic itself is sentient," said OlderLavender "but if it was in any way so then it would have known that you could not have done the job on your own and summoned us along with you."

"True," said Harry.

Dumbledore pushed his way through the crowd of students in order to greet the newcomers.

"So, you must be from the army that Mr Potter has so enthusiastically spoken about?"

Older Susan turned to Harry and asked "Is he the one responsible for you being dragged here?"

"He is, yes," replied Harry.

"Interesting," said Older Susan.

"Yes, unfortunately we were in a bit of a bind you see," Dumbledore began to try and explain "only as a last resort did we –_urgk_!"

Older Susan's punch happened so quickly that most of the people gathered there missed it. What they did see, however, was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the International Confederation of Wizards, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Headmaster of the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the world (allegedly, though doubtful) fall to the floor, crying in agony and clutching at his broken and bleeding nose.

No one there could believe what they had just seen. The great Albus Dumbledore had been punched square on the nose, by none other than the quiet and polite Susan Bones of all people! Alright, this was an older and battle-hardened Susan, but still the very concept of it all was a lot to take in.

"Well I, for one, feel much better," announced Older Susan.

"Hang on," said Older Lavender as she approached Dumbledore's prone form.

With everyone still in shock at what Older Susan had done, no one made a move to stop Older Lavender from doing what she did next. Her boot stuck Dumbledore so hard in the stomach that he wrecked and splattered the remains of his lunch all over the floor. Given his age and the strength she put into her kick, it was quite possible that some serious damage had been done to Dumbledore's insides.

"Feel better yet?" Harry asked her.

Older Lavender appeared to think for a moment before deciding that she didn't feel better yet. She raised her booted foot and stomped down hard upon Dumbledore's right kneecap. There was a satisfying _crack_ and Dumbledore groaned in pain.

Older Lavender gave a nod of her head and said "Yup. That'll about do it."

"Good," said Older Susan before turning to Harry "Come on you, home time."

"Right-o!" replied Harry, jovially.

He and the two women turned towards the peculiar light-based phenomenon and were just about to go through it when a voice spoke up.

"Wait!"

Harry stopped and turned, ensuring that the other two did so as well.

Hermione Granger pushed her way through a pair of Ravenclaw fifth years so that she was standing directly in front of Harry "I thought you said you were gonna help us."

"Um…" replied Harry, eloquently.

Older Susan stepped up beside him "Harry, did you promise to help them?"

Harry sighed and said "It was the only way to get the notes for the summoning ritual from Dumbledore."

Neville came forwards "What about my parents? What about this world's Harry? You said you'd see if your healers could help them."

"Erm…" said Harry, at which point Older Lavender smacked him upside the head.

"Don't go around making promises you can't keep, Potter," she scolded him and Harry rubbed the back of his head.

"Fine," grumbled Harry before turning back to the crowd "Sorry guys, but I made a promise that I had no intention of keeping…"

"Then why did you make it?" asked Luna.

"Hey, don't act like I was given some kind of choice!" protested Harry "I was kidnapped from my home world, my home universe by the unscrupulous bastards that run your country in order to fight their war for them. The only chance I ever had of getting home was to play along for a bit."

"So that's it?" asked Professor McGonagall "The first chance you get you're running?"

"Just stop trying to take the moral high ground here," said Harry "You know that you have no right to demand anything from me. You didn't even ask for my help in the first place…"

"Well we're asking now," said Hermione.

Harry looked at her, and the sea of faces that surrounded her. He heaved a great sigh and turned to Older Susan and Older Lavender "Well? What do you think?"

The pair exchanged a look, and Older Lavender shrugged her shoulders.

Older Susan turned to Harry and said "Well, it couldn't hurt too much to give them a bit of training and knock of couple of Death Eater heads off."

Harry sighed heavily again and turned back to the school "Fine, if any of you want to learn to fight properly then I'll show you, and if any Death Eaters get too close for comfort I'll sort them out, but other than that this is your war not mine, understood?"

"And what about our world's Harry?" asked Hermione.

"I'll see what I can do," said Harry, without making any promises.

Hermione nodded her head in acceptance.

"Right," said Older Susan, grabbing him by the arm "come on you, we've got to let your wife know that you are alright and what interesting new situation you've dug yourself into."

"Great," said Harry, unenthusiastically "now she'll do what everyone else has failed to achieve and kill me."

"Hang on," said Young Susan "how do we know that you are going to come back."

Harry and the other two exchanged looks before Older Lavender announced "They'll come back because I'm staying here."

"Right," said Harry after hearing no objections "now that that's settled, I'm going to go and make my wife annoyed at me and then see what kind of training regimen can be put together."

He looked down at Dumbledore who was still lying groaning on the floor and commented "Someone should probably get him to the Hospital Wing for a check over. I might not like the bastard, but I suspect that him dying in the middle of the Great Hall will be rather bad for morale."

And with that he turned and followed Older Susan into the orb of light.

Older Lavender turned to the school at large and asked with a big grin on her face "So, are we having a feast here or what?"

* * *

The light faded as Harry continued to walk forwards and, as is eyes adjusted, he found himself standing on a lush green lawn with the silhouette of Hogwarts Castle looming up before him.

Before his eyes could take in anymore he was mobbed by his research team, each one of them eager to either hug him or grasp his hand firmly or slap him on the back as a way of welcoming him home.

"Alright guys," Susan called out "let the man breathe."

They pulled back and looked at him, each one grinning happily. Harry quickly noticed that he was grinning happily too.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you lot," he said.

"Not half as good as it is to see you," said Padma Patil, one of the lead researchers. She turned and addressed Susan "What took so long? We were about to send in a rescue party."

"And where's Lavender?" asked Lisa Turpin.

"She's waiting for us on the other side," said Susan "There are a couple of things to sort out…"

She trailed off, seeing an even larger group of people making their way towards them. Harry was soon surrounded again, this time by a combination of their warriors, healers and other support workers.

Finally, however, somebody whom he had missed more than anybody over the past three weeks made her way into his arms.

She was smiling more brightly than she had even on the day they had gotten married. Her eyes were sparkling with tears that reflected the love within them.

He hated what he was going to have to tell her.

"Welcome home Harry," he heard her say into him mind.

"It's great to be back," he replied with a genuine smile.

She took a hold of his hand and led him away from the throng of people. Some were a little upset at having their illustrious leader taken away from them so quickly after having only just gotten him back, but there again, he was Hermione's husband. It was only right that she wanted some alone time with him.

Especially with the news that she had for him.

Once the pair were out of earshot, Susan addressed the crowd "Alright everyone, listen up. An unexpected situation has arisen…"

* * *

Harry followed behind Hermione as she led the way up a staircase that led to their part of the castle. She never let go of his hand the entire time.

They got to a familiar door and she pushed it open before leading the way in.

Harry looked around the room and saw that Hermione had decorated it a bit. It still felt very much like his home, however.

He quickly decided that it was best to tell her now and get it over with.

"Look, Hermione," he said as he turned around, but that was as far as he got.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly on the lips.

"I've missed you," she said into his mind.

"I've missed you too," he replied.

She pulled back with a smile on her face "I've got someone who wants to meet you."

And with that she turned away from him and made her way over to a door that, if Harry remembered correctly, led only to a spare bedroom.

'_Maybe I shouldn't tell her tonight,'_ thought Harry, lowering his eyes towards the floor '_Surely we deserve to just enjoy tonight and then we can worry about it all tomorrow.'_

"Harry," her voice called and he lifted his head to look at her.

And then his heart seemed to stop. Hermione had returned from the spare bedroom carrying what at first appeared to be a bundle of pale pink blankets. As Hermione tilted the bundle at an angle to allow him a better view, he saw that wrapped within there was a child, slightly more than a year old.

It was a girl, who was already sporting a good amount of the brown hair she had inherited from Hermione.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet Lily Rose Potter. Your daughter. Our daughter."

Harry felt weak. He was dizzy, lightheaded, and his legs no longer had the strength to support him.

He slumped into an armchair and gaped at Hermione.

She just smiled and him and came closer "Hold out your arms."

Harry did so automatically and she immediately placed the child there before sitting on the arm of the chair.

He looked down at the small face that was just visible between the brown hair and the pink blankets.

'_She's got Hermione's nose…'_ he thought and then smiled as the little girl yawned widely and then opened her eyes.

It hit Harry like a freight train. Looking back at him were two of the most brilliantly green eyes he had ever seen. The only time he had seen anything similar were when he looked into a mirror or looks at a photograph of his mother.

The child had his eyes. His mother's eyes.

He and Hermione had a daughter who had inherited his eyes.

Tears stung at his eyes as he found his voice "How old is she?"

"Fifteen months," replied Hermione "I found out I was pregnant a fortnight after you disappeared."

Harry nodded, but her words had brought up another emotion – anger, though he didn't immediately understand why.

Then he realised. That old fool's meddling had resulted in his missing out on the first fifteen months of his daughter's life. He had missed her being born. He had missed helping Hermione through her pregnancy.

He turned his eyes towards Hermione, who noticed the angry look there.

"What's the matter?" she voice asked in his mind.

"Dumbledore," he replied "I'm gonna kill him."

* * *

Older Lavender was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, seated comfortably in an armchair that she had conjured up. From this position she could not only see those who wanted to talk to her but also keep an eye on those at other tables, particularly the staff table, and keep a watch on the way home.

Professor Flitwick had been left in charge, with Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Snap all having escorted Dumbledore up to the Hospital Wing.

Immediately around her were those students closest to this world's version of Harry, mostly the members of the D.A. All of them wanted to know as much as possible.

She lifted a nearby steak and sniffed it before wincing and setting it back down.

"Tilly!" she called out and, to the surprise of everyone around her, one of the Hogwarts House Elves appeared before her.

"Yes miss?" asked the female elf.

"Hello Tilly," said Older Lavender before holding out the steak "I usually prefer my stakes a lot more rare than this. Would it be possible…"

The House Elf disappeared at once, only to reappear almost instantly holding a plate made of fine china upon which sat three juicy steaks that were practically swimming in blood.

"Lovely," said Older Lavender, taking the plate from the House Elf.

"Anytime, miss." replied Tilly as she gave a low bow before popping away.

Older Lavender picked up one of the steaks and, foregoing the knife and fork, bit into it rather savagely.

The younger version of herself was looking a bit disgusted and asked "How can you eat meat like that?"

Older Lavender swallowed her mouthful of food and replied "Easy. I'm a partial werewolf."

This drew gasps from nearly everyone while Neville asked "Wait, does that mean that one of your parents was a werewolf?"

"No," replied Older Lavender "it means that I was attacked by a particularly vicious one when it wasn't fully transformed. I am not a full werewolf and nor can I pass on the infection. I do, however, have a few wolfish traits. I enjoy my meat very rare, I get a little more aggressive at the full moon and every so often I get into a mood that Susan politely describes as frisky, Hermione factually states as being in heat and Harry, Luna and several others simply and rather crudely refer to as being extra horny."

"That's it?" asked Younger Susan "I'd have thought that there would have been more side effects than that."

Older Lavender thought for a moment before replying "Well, it has been speculated that there might be a chance that I will be a bit more predisposed to giving birth to multiple babies at one time than the average human being, but that has yet to be proven. Other than that, nothing."

"And what about the axe?" asked Younger Lavender.

"Oh, that," said Older Lavender "well, that wasn't so much a result of being attacked by a werewolf as it was a result of just being attacked."

"Meaning?" prompted Younger Lavender.

"Meaning I saw my family killed and my home burned down right before my eyes and I was brutally attacked," replied Older Lavender "This resulted in my desire for revenge. That desire would have come about whether the attack came from a werewolf, a Death Eater or anyone else. The werewolf side of me might have pushed me a little more into acting upon that desire though."

Younger Lavender had gone very pale at this "My, sorry, our parents died in your world?"

"Yup. It wasn't pretty and it changed me forever. All obsession over make-up, pretty dresses and the latest hairstyle left me that night, leaving behind nothing but a sense of loss and a burning hatred. Parvati took me in, Susan and the others showed me how best to channel my new emotions and the next time I met Fenrir Greyback, he did not survive."

Hermione's eyes nearly popped right out of their sockets as she exclaimed "You defeated Fenrir Greyback?"

Older Lavender leaned back with a smile on her face. She placed her booted feet up onto the table and replied "Why, yes. Yes I did."

"Wait a minute," said Hermione "Are you telling me that you met Fenrir Greyback while he was transformed, killed him, skinned him and turned him into a pair of boots."

"Not just the boots," said Older Lavender "I got this shawl out of him as well. I also have a helmet that his tail hangs from and his head is mounted on my wall."

Hermione frowned "That's totally-"

"Barbaric?" asked Older Lavender "Yes, it is. But then, so is killing my entire family. So is rounding up and slaughtering as many Muggleborns, half-bloods, half breeds and blood traitors as you can find, but the powers that be weren't particularly interested in stopping that, so I feel no guilt what so ever about claiming a trophy or two."

At that moment, someone came charging through the orb of light and headed straight towards the doors of the Great Hall. It took Older Lavender half a second to realise that it was a steaming mad Harry Potter.

Just as Lavender was getting to her feet, Older Susan came through and called after him "Harry, come back!" as several others came through as well.

He had already passed through the doors, but they all heard his shout back "I'm gonna kill him!"

Older Susan gave chase. Older Lavender told the others who had come through to wait in the hall to guard the way home and then followed suit. One of the newcomers defied her order and followed on anyway. But she was allowed to.

The atmosphere in the Hall was a mixture of emotions. Some were curious about whom Harry was after, and others were worried about his threat to kill that person.

A few others were paying more attention to the newcomers. Paying particular attention were Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbott, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil and the Creevey brothers, all of whom found themselves looking at the older, alternate universe versions of themselves.

It was a very strange experience.

* * *

Harry was just nearing the doors to the Hospital Wing when Susan finally succeeded in stopping him. Having given up on the verbal approach, she put on a bit of speed and tackled him to the ground.

"Get off me!" Harry raged as he tried to throw Susan off, but then suddenly Lavender was there too and between them the pair pinned him down.

"Harry," said Susan, quite calmly "You can't kill Dumbledore."

"Yes I can!" he replied "You know damn well that I can!"

"Well then you shouldn't!" retorted Susan, who was used to Harry turning the usage of should, would and could to his advantage.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't." raged Harry.

"You said it yourself," said Lavender, who by now knew enough and correctly guessed enough to work out what was going on "Dumbledore dying won't be good for morale in this world."

"Fuck this world!" snapped Harry "I don't give a shit about this world!"

"You don't mean that," said a voice in all of their heads, and they all turned to see Hermione walking calmly towards them, little Lily in her arms.

Knowing from experience that Harry would sit there and listen to what Hermione said without being restrained, Susan and Lavender let him go. Harry sat up and leaned against the wall. Hermione sat down next to him and Susan and Lavender seated themselves in front of them.

"Harry," Hermione continued "there will be an appropriate time to kill Dumbledore for what he has done to you, both in this world and our own, but it is not now. For now, you need to help this world."

"No I don't," replied Harry.

"Yes you do," said Hermione in a rather forceful tone "I know you, Harry. I know you better than everyone else. Had it only been Dumbledore and his lackeys, or the officials from the Ministry, the people who had completely let us down in our world, you could have walked away. But it isn't just them, is it? It's us as well. Our younger, mostly uncorrupted, innocent, alternate universe versions of ourselves."

Harry lowered his head as Hermione continued "I know you Harry. In spite of everything that you have done, in spite of the battles you have fought, in spite of all those you have had to kill, you are still very much the same Harry Potter beneath it all. I know that if you leave this world now that you have experienced it without helping them out, the guilt will eat at you. If you leave now, you will drive yourself to despair worrying if they are alright and wondering 'what if…' There are scars on your heart Harry, caused by people who you knew in our world dying. You have the chance to help them save themselves here. You can't throw that away."

Harry leaned his head onto her shoulder and muttered "You know me too well."

"I'm your wife, it's my job." replied Hermione before placing baby Lily into his arms once again.

Harry spent a few moments looking as his precious daughter before stating "I don't want to be in another war."

"You don't have to be," said Hermione "Just give them the help necessary to learn to fight one on their own."

He nodded.

They sat there in silence for a good hour, Harry just getting to know his daughter. Not one of them commented on the cruel irony of the situation that the fifteen months of his daughter's life that Harry had missed out on was also the same amount of time that he had gotten to spend with his own parents before their murder.

* * *

**A/N: So what do you think? If you're having trouble picturing what the thing that allows them to travel between the two worlds looks like, think of the "anomalies" from the television series "Primeval" If you've never seen the show, Google it.**

**Also ten house points are available to whoever can tell me the significance to hooting twice like a barn owl and once like a screech owl.**


End file.
